


Lucki

by Farla



Category: PKMN, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Deconstruction, Gen, Hoenn, Pokemon Journey, Team Aqua (Pokemon), Team Magma (Pokemon), Tragedy, btp, rbtp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-06
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 42,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22132942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farla/pseuds/Farla
Summary: A young girl by the name of Lucki becomes a pokemon trainer and begins her journey. A tragedy in thirteen acts.
Comments: 26
Kudos: 5
Collections: Comment Exchange, Female Characters Deserve Better, Femfanon—All OFC Free Collection, Focus on Female Characters





	1. this

_Day Twelve_

Lucki Middling dragged a silver brush rapidly through her chest-length aquamarine hair, her greenish-gold hazel eyes watching her progress in taming her hair in the tall mirror against the wall. When she was satisfied she'd managed to remove most of the snarls and gotten it to lie smoothly, she dropped the brush onto the polished wooden top of her cherry wood bureau with a clatter. She pushed her slightly curly hair back over her shoulders to keep it out of her face, turning around as she did so to look over her room, seeing the same light green bedspread, her stuffed pokemon vulpix and seel by her pillow, and a poster of a rearing rapidash on the wall facing the foot of her bed. She'd be packing it all up soon, she thought, turning to the mahogany door and twisting the bronze doorknob to open it.

Stepping out Lucki was immediately struck by another girl. "SorrygottagohurryupLucki!" garbled her assailant, bouncing off her and continuing with barely a pause. Lucki watched the crimson hair weave around the other, saner students at a breakneck pace and then disappear down the stairs. Rane was always like that. She was the most impatient person Lucki had ever met, and that, coupled with an inability to plan well enough to arrive places in advance, led to mad dashes to be among the first. The fact that the redhead seemed to consider student-dodging a worthy sport by itself didn't help matters. She'd race to get places she didn't even care about – like class.

Not that Lucki was sedate herself. Pushing her slightly curly hair back again with fingers tipped in emerald nail polish, she broke into a jog and followed her friend. It was hard to walk when today was the day pokemon would be distributed among the graduates.

*

"We're too late," Rane announced mournfully, the bright green eyed girl sounding truly disappointed. Lucki craned her neck, catching tantalizing glimpses of caged pokemon where the heavy red stage curtain didn't quite meet the wood paneled walls. "What'd you see, Vi?"

"They kicked me out about as soon as I got up there," the lavender-haired girl reported, sounding an even mix of disappointed, thwarted and scheming. She sent another glance behind her, her lilac eyes speculative, but then, turning back and regarding the growing crowd coming in, sighed in defeat. "I just got a quick look, but they've got a bunch of eevee, common pokemon like taillow and sandshrew, some of the ordinary starters-"

"Ugh," the two other thirteen year old girls interrupted simultaneously. There was nothing exactly wrong with the ordinary starters, except that they  _ were _ ordinary, the kind anyone could start with.

"-at least one elekid and magby, a tauros and I think I saw a dratini over in the other corner. Oh, and some of them were unusual colors, like a gold rattata and green zubat," Violet finished.

"Cool," breathed Lucki.

"Special-colors are for collectors, not real trainers," Rane stated. "They're not as tough as normal ones. And that's the last thing you want for your  _ starting pokemon _ of all things."

That was true. Pokemon with different colors had usually been bred for a long time for contests or pets, and pokemon sports were often less healthy than others. This wasn't true for all of them, but it was a risk. For a starting pokemon, Lucki knew she needed a dependable, versatile pokemon, one that could handle whatever came up while she was catching her first pokemon and traveling around. Any pokemon could be raised to be strong, but for the first pokemon she got, it was important it be able to handle things from the start. She should probably take her teacher's advice and pick something like a machop or a mareep.

"Please line up," called one of the teachers. "Stop loitering and blocking the doors." The trio of graduates began walking slowly across the dark mottled red carpet of the floor towards the forming line, where a set of wooden stairs led up onto the stage.

"Think anyone will pick the rattata?" wondered Violet.

"No," Rane commented, "not unless they're not serious at all."

"Not everybody is," Violet remarked.

"Oh no, don't tell – come on, like we're going to listen!" Lucki wailed, watching the principal, Prof. Hawthorn, walk up to the podium.

"Attention please," the older blonde-haired woman clad in a grey suit began. "Today is a momentous occasion…"

"So what kind of pokemon are you going to pick?" asked Violet.

"I don't know…" Lucki answered. "Do you know, Rane?"

"A normal-type. Maybe one of the eevee. Or one of the others they have. I heard they might have a teddiursa. But of course you can't just decide," the ruby-haired girl stated. The other two aspiring trainers nodded in agreement. "You have to pick a pokemon based on which seems right for you."

"I'm going to pick something hard to find," Violet declared. "The pokemon I meet as a trainer are going to be common ones at first, and it'll be a long time before I'll be able to go out into wilder areas. Maybe even a month."

The three young women stood silently, contemplating that.

The first students were called up. Lucki's name wasn't among them, but she still didn't know what she wanted and didn't mind delaying the decision a moment longer. There were all sorts of stories about kids who picked wrong and wound up with a disobedient pokemon that hated them. Her classmates picked rarer pokemon, some popular, like vulpix, and some less so, like an enthusiastic elekid, which let out a cheery cry, electricity sparking between the black and yellow electric-plug-like growths on its head. The eevee were picked steadily, with a girl named Nari picking the white one. Lucki knew Nari didn't have to worry about her choice being frail, she would be getting another from her family.

Before long, Lucki's name was called. She said a quick goodbye to her friends and walked up to the stage.

Up there, Lucki turned slowly in a semicircle, looking over the different pokemon. There were around a hundred left. Here and there one of the stainless steel cages was empty, but most were still occupied. The cages ranged in size, and the pokemon within them varied even more, from the two white ponyta tossing their fiery manes and flicking their flaming tails in the biggest cages to a tiny brown diglett sitting in a cage at the bottom of a stack of three. The golden rattata Violet mentioned was there too, its fur shining in the light and clear cerulean eyes staring at her boldly. And there were still others, like the peanut butter-colored teddiursa standing with one paw in its mouth looking at her with an adorably curious expression, and a yellow charmander with black eyes and claws. After a moment she focused on looking for the pokemon she'd been advised to take, machop, skarmory, growlithe, barboach. She noticed a machop just left of the center. But before she could decide to pick it, her eyes caught on the pokemon next to it, a small silvery squirtle. The tiny turtle didn't have the same assertive, self-confident look in its eyes as some of the others, but somehow, Lucki was sure it was the right one.

"That squirtle," she decided, and her teacher – former teacher, she thought with a burst of glee – handed her one of the white school pokeballs. Pressing the button, a red beam shot out, striking the squirtle and turning it to the same shade. The red then sucked back into the pokeball and she was ushered off the stage into the next room.

There, assembled parents were waiting at tables to meet up with their children before the principal's next speech, this time to them, and the next event, where Lucki and the others would officially be graduating. She headed over to her mother and father, who were sitting at a table on the leftmost row.

"I just can't believe it," Lucki's mother, a slim woman with reddish-blonde hair, stated happily. "My daughter, about to become a great trainer.

Her father, who had almost black green hair, smiled. "So what pokemon did you pick?"

"A squirtle," Lucki told the middle-aged man. She reached for the white school pokeball, but thought better of it. There were a lot of people around. It didn't seem the best place for introductions. "She's pretty, silver-colored."

"I thought you Pokemon School kids thought the regular starters weren't unique enough," her mother teased.

Lucki wondered what Rane and Violet, or the other graduates would think. Probably nothing. It was her choice. "Actually, I didn't intend to, but when I saw the squirtle, I knew."

"Well, that's how it should be," declared her brown-eyed father firmly. "Your starter is the pokemon that's with you from the very beginning. The most important thing is for you to feel comfortable with it."

"Yeah." Lucki smiled.

"And now…" With a flourish, her father pulled out three boxes from under the table, all covered in bright, shiny wrapping paper with a ribbon and bow on them. "You didn't think we forgot in all of the excitement," he asked jokingly, seeing her golden green eyes light up. "Go on, open them. The one on the top is from your grandparents."

Lucki reached for the first box. It was covered in soaring wingull on a blue background with a white ribbon around it. She pushed off the ribbon and tore through the paper, then lifted the lid off, revealing a white leather wallet. The young girl picked it up and opened it to see a sheaf of bills, 150,000 in all. "Alright!" Lucki chirped. "Tell them thanks for me."

The next present was covered in wrapping paper covered in starts. Inside was a sleek blue gadget Lucki didn't recognize. "What's this?" she wondered, picking it up.

"It's a new device we've been made a work," her father explained. "It combines the functions of several newer devices with the standard trainer gear, giving item-storage, adjustable maps, an improved radio and phone, as well as the compressed contents of basic trainer guides. It'll be a few years before this'll be publicly available."

"Thanks!" Lucki voiced delightedly.

The third package contained a necklace. It had a brilliant green stone encased in thin gold wire, hanging from a fine gold chain. "Oh," Lucki whispered, "it's beautiful." She slipped it over her neck so that the stone lay on her chest over the white and black school uniform. It sparkled a moment as it caught on a ray of light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I welcome comments and I really do mean that. Are you confused about something? Tell me! Are you confused about something and think it's because I'm a bad writer? Tell me! Do you disagree about something? Tell me! Do you have any other sort of opinion on any of my writing choices? Tell me! Do you think you need to be better before you're allowed to tell a writer your opinion? You don't, tell me! Do you think this fic would be better if it was another, completely different kind of fic? I cannot promise I will rewrite it for you, but I am very interested in hearing about why you think that! Do you want to say something you are absolutely, one-hundred-percent sure I don't want to hear? Tell me! Do you doubt that and nothing I can say will convince you I won't get mad and hold a grudge against you forever more? Anon commenting is on, give it a consequence-free try! (You can put your actual email in there, I can't see any of that information.)


	2. is the

Lucki was alone at last up in her room.  _ Well, here goes nothing. _ She pressed the button on the white pokeball, and the silvery squirtle appeared on the floor next to her bed. Looking more closely at the water type, she saw her pokemon was a girl.

"Hi," she greeted. "We didn't get a chance to be introduced. I'm Lucki, your trainer."

"Squir," the squirtle responded, her voice a bit timid but friendly.

"Let's see, I guess you need a name," Lucki mentioned thoughtfully. "How about Silver?"

The squirtle nodded agreeably, seeming pleased.

"Okay, Silver it is. Tomorrow, we'll set off on our pokemon journey. But right now I've got to pack up, so you'll have to go back into your pokeball until than." She recalled Silver, walked over to the wall, and began detaching her poster. It didn't take long, and the rest of the packing didn't take much longer. When she was finished, she lay down to go to sleep, thinking of the next day.

_ Day Eleven _

In the morning, the former students gathered in front of the school, looking for friends and saying goodbyes. Lucki pushed through the crowd until she found Rane and Violet.

"Hi," she called out.

"Hi," the two replied. Rane continued, "So hey, now that you're here, let's introduce our pokemon."

The three friends turned to the right and pushed their way back out of the crowd. They stopped under one of the big oaks. Other groups were around, some who must have had the same idea and were letting their pokemon out quickly. Further off, one pair was already battling.

"I'll go first," decided Vi. She sent out a stocky mottled yellow pokemon with blue eyes. "This is Shira, my sandshrew," she introduced.

"Sand!" Shira added, punctuating the statement.

Violet recalled her pokemon. Rane went next, sending out one of the cute brown bears Lucki remembered seeing before. "Star," she told them, naming the teddiursa.

Next, Lucki opened her own pokeball. "This is Silver." The tiny turtle looked small in comparison to the others' pokemon, with slim, almost frail limbs.

"She's pretty, but kind of petite," Rane mentioned after the pokemon was recalled. "I thought you wanted something…"

"I'll train her a bit before our first battle," Lucki decided.

"Besides Rane, squirtle are standard pokemon," Violet reminded, although she did look a bit unimpressed. "They're not weaklings."

"I didn't mean that. I was just surprised. Anyway, where are you guys planning to go?"

"I'm going to head towards Rustboro," Lucki stated.

"I was planning on trying out Mauville's Gym and seeing if I can get a Dynamo badge."

"I'm going in that direction too, but," Rane added, "heading down to Slateport instead."

"So I guess we're splitting up." Lucki looked at her two friends for a moment. "But, we'll probably run into each other again soon, so it's not like we won't be meeting again."

"Yeah." Rane smiled.

The three young trainers walked out through the ornate, cast-iron gates that had been opened earlier. Lucki headed northwest, which would take her through the heart of Verdanturf and then towards the cave passage beyond it.

Lucki followed the sidewalk through the town, breathing in the beautiful clear air. Everything was vibrant and happy. The deep green tree leaves, the emerald blades of grass, the flowering bushes of all different colors, all seemed to radiate a dewy contentment and heath. It was a perfect day for the start of a pokemon journey.

It didn't take her long to arrive at the pokemart. She picked up a basket just inside the automatic sliding doors, and then headed for the nearby pharmacy section. The school gave all students a couple potions, full heals and revives, but that was only a starter kit and the former students were expected to stock up on more once they started. She picked up a few paralyze heals, a number of antidotes, a burn heal spray just in case, and a couple of awakenings. She also took a super potion. Then she moved over to the pokeball section. She picked up a few pokeballs and a greatball in case she needed one. Now she just needed pokemon food.

Lucki moved into the next aisle and looked over the selection. There was standard food, as well as mixes specially made for certain types. After considering for a moment, she picked up a case for water pokemon and added it to the basket.

There was another section next to it, shelved with accessory-style items for individual pokemon, like ribbons. One on shelf she saw small metal circlets. According to the tags, they were translators.  _ Cool. _ Lucki picked one up and let Silver out. She put it around the squirtle's neck. "That's a translator, try it out," she urged.

Silver opened her mouth. As soon as the first "Squir" came out, the translator chimed in. "Translator?" she said, then, "Cool!"

Lucki laughed. "I guess we'll be buying that, then." She headed to the checkout, then stored the items and went back out onto the sidewalk. Lucki continued on her way until she was out of the town.

She stopped by a copse of trees. This looked like a good place to start. She tossed out Silver's pokeball. The water type looked around in wonder, then turned to her.

"I bet you haven't had practice battling, right?"

"No," Silver agreed apologetically.

"It's okay, but we should practice before we battle. Do you know any water moves yet?"

Silver shook her head. "Sorry."

"You'll learn. Right now, we should practice your tackle."

Silver nodded.

"Try tackling that tree," Lucki decided, pointing to a sleek young elm.

Silver nodded again. "Okay," she said. She took a deep breath and ran at the tree, striking into it with a thump. The branches rustled slightly.

"Great, now keep trying!"

Silver ran forward again. This time, the tree's branches shook visibly, and a few leaves fluttered down.

After a few tries, Lucki decided Silver seemed confident enough in using her attack. She didn't want her pokemon to get tired out before they'd even had their first battle.

"Okay Silver, that's good. Let's see if we can find a pokemon to battle now."

"Sure!" agreed Silver.

Lucki continued walking in the direction of the cave pass. She saw a wurmple crawling along the grass and approached it. "Hi, um, can I battle you?"

The wurmple nodded. "Wurm."

"Okay. Silver?"

Silver nodded, looking a bit uncertain but focused.

"Tackle!"

Silver ran at the red worm pokemon, hitting it directly and knocking it backward. It spat out a white thread in response that caught on her shell and stuck.

_ Stringshot, _ Lucki remembered. It would slow an opponent down. "Quick, see if you can get it off."

Silver reached for it to tug it off, but when she felt it sticking to her hands she tried to pull them loose instead. The wurmple took advantage of her distraction to tackle her. "Oof!" The impact pulled her hands loose though.

"Tackle," Lucki tried again, but then quickly yelled, "Dodge," as the bug type sent another sticky thread towards Silver, who ducked it just in time and barreled forward, striking it hard enough to knock it off its many feet and send it tumbling. This dazed it and it laid there, eyes confused spirals.

"Great, we won!" announced Lucki, heading over to disentangle Silver. She sprayed some potion on a bruise on Silver's chest where she had been tackled, then headed over to do the same to the wurmple, which grunted agreeably and began to crawl off.

"Thanks for helping me fight," Silver praised. "I didn't think I'd win."

"You did great too, Silver," Lucki responded.

Lucki continued towards the tunnel, which was now visible in the distance. She didn't see anything new on her way there, except for a few taillow flying high up in the distance.

She stopped just inside the mouth of the tunnel to let her eyes adjust. Once they did she started to walk across the pink-grey stone of the mountain. It was misty and cool, and Lucki's vision was obscured at a distance, but she could still see well enough. Ten feet in, a whismur scampered into the path and faced at her, muttering softly to itself, then continued away again. This happened a few times until another whismur stopped in front of her. It was hard to tell with the light purple pokemon's squinty eyes, but it seemed to be staring or glaring at Lucki. After a moment it let out a short cry that sounded similar to an uproar attack.

"You want to fight?" she asked it, and when it nodded added, "Well, okay."

Lucki released Silver from her pokeball with a flash of white light. "Start off with a tackle," she told Silver when the squirtle appeared.

It was hard to read the expressions of a pokemon like whismur, but Lucki thought it looked a bit perplexed by Silver. It had probably never seen a squirtle before, they weren't natives of Hoenn or that common for trainers there. If they weren't a standard Kanto starter, the school probably wouldn't have even had one as an option, and Lucki didn't remember seeing any other squirtle there to choose. The Kanto starters managed to be both commonly known and rare. Hoenn trainers couldn't normally pick them up unless they deliberately went and bought one, and they lacked the novelty that motivated such purchases.

Lucki was brought out of her thoughts as Silver, after taking a deep breath, launched herself at the dull purple and yellow pokemon, striking it with the hard shell of her chest. The whisper pokemon retaliated by pounding the tiny turtle over the head hard enough to knock her off balance so she nearly fell onto her stomach. She ducked the next pound by pulling her head suddenly into her shell, then tackled the normal type again after it had banged its fist on the edge of her armor.

The whismur backed up a few steps. Lucki wondered if it would use uproar, but instead it lunged its upper body towards Silver in a sudden, unexpectedly fast motion. An afterimage seemed to break off and continue for a second, striking into Silver, who recoiled and flinched from the surprise of the astonish attack. The whismur approached to take advantage of this with another pound attack.

"Quick, dodge!" Lucki called, and Silver regained her wits in time to jump to the side. Frustrated, the whismur looked at the two sourly, opened its mouth widely and inhaled with enough force that Lucki could feel the air tugging at her. The normal type puffed up much like the unrelated jigglypuff, then began letting out bellowing cries, the sound waves striking the tiny turtle and wearing her down.

"Tackle again!" yelled Lucki over the background din.

Spurred by the painful noise, Silver struck the other pokemon hard and managed to pin it against one rock wall of the tunnel, squishing enough air out of the whismur to stop the attack and daze it so that the whisper pokemon couldn't continue the battle.

Lucki quickly ran over to spray a potion on Silver's bruises. Before she could do the same for the whismur, the pokemon had gotten up and headed away, murmuring to itself.

The end of the tunnel was in sight, so Lucki hurried onward. She didn't see any more whismur along the way.

She stepped out of the cave, blinking as her eyes adjusted again to the sunlight.

"Oh, hey!" called a girl's voice. Lucki shaded her eyes and looked to the sound, seeing a fourteen year old girl with dark green hair braided tightly together with a silver ribbon threaded through it that sparkled in the light. By her side walked an odd pokemon on delicate golden cream colored legs, blinking large brown eyes set in a face of the same color with odd fur that tapered into twin sideways peaks on either side of its head. It had a long, thin tail ending in a tuft of purple fur waving back and forth gently, purple ears, and around its neck what looked almost like a fur collar that had two small balls sticking out on either side. After a moment, Lucki recognized it as a delcatty. She was familiar with the rare preevolved form, but the evolution was rarer still, which was why she had had trouble remembering it.

"Hi," Lucki called back as the girl walked over.

"Is that your pokemon?"

Lucki nodded. "Her name's Silver."

"Hi," added Silver.

"You're a trainer then?"

"We just started," Lucki explained. "My name's Lucki."

"I'm Atki, and this is Princess," she introduced, gesturing to the delcatty. "Want to battle?"

Lucki glanced down to Silver. "Are you up to it?" she asked. Silver nodded. "Okay then."

"Body slam," commanded Atki once that had been resolved.

"Dodge and use tail whip," Lucki countered.

The delcatty ran forward and leapt into the air. Silver darted right just before Princess slammed into the ground, then smacked the normal type in the face with her tail, forcing the prim pokemon's eyes closed. Quickly, Lucki ordered a tackle while the evolved pokemon's defense was down, and Silver charged forward, striking hard into Princess' left side before she could recover. The delcatty retaliated, swiping at Silver with her tail in a sharp doubleslap move.

"Quick, flash!" shouted Atki. "Then double-edge!"

Princess stilled a moment, closing her eyes. A moment later a sudden burst of light came from the feline pokemon. Silver stood dazed, blinking blankly in confusion. The normal type opened her eyes and ran forward, picking up high speed in a double-edge attack.

"Get out of the way, Silver!" Lucki yelled quickly.

Silver rolled to one side blindly, the delcatty shooting past her. She rubbed her eyes, which were still displaying a blur of afterimages from the flash attack. They cleared just in time for her to see Princess barreling towards her. Startled, she stood frozen a moment, barely hearing Lucki telling her to dodge, just staring at the pokemon about to hit her. Then suddenly, she shot out a blast of water, striking the catlike pokemon hard enough to make her swerve away. Princess stopped, shaking herself to dislodge the water.

"Great!" called Lucki. "You learned water gun!"

Silver nodded proudly. She sent another one towards Princess, but the prim pokemon jumped over it and twisted around to doubleslap Silver with her tail again. Silver struck her with a third water gun, but the normal type jumped away quickly to break free of the move. The delcatty's fur was soaked and she was breathing heavily, but she was still able to fight.

"Faint attack," Atki decided.

Princess vanished. Silver looked around, and then was struck suddenly in the back by her again visible opponent hard enough to send her flying. The tiny turtle lay dazed on the ground.

Lucki sighed. "I guess we lost." She looked to Atki. "Good battle. Your delcatty's really something."

"You two are pretty good too," the girl responded before heading off.

"Sorry..." Silver apologized after she'd recovered and received a potion, looking downcast.

"It's okay. You did great for your first battle against another trainer. And you learned a new move."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Lucki nodded. "We'll train more and get stronger."

"Right!" agreed Silver.

The two headed onward along the Route 116 path.

"Hey," Silver mentioned. "Do you hear that?"

Lucki paused and listened. Sure enough there was a soft, whimpering sound. She moved toward it carefully. It was coming from behind a bush. The young trainer pushed aside the branches and saw a small taillow, the navy blue feathers of one wing mussed and bloody.

"Oh..." whispered Lucki. She carefully picked up the injured bird, cradling it in her arms, and started off toward the Rustboro Pokemon Center.

It didn't take long before she reached it. The Nurse Joy's chansey quickly ferried the tiny swallow pokemon away.

"Will it be okay?" asked Lucki.

"It should be," Nurse Joy stated. "We'll know in a few hours if there are any complications."

"Oh, okay. Also, my squirtle's tired, could you heal her?"

Nurse Joy nodded and accepted Silver's pokeball. A few minutes later she handed it back and Lucki headed out of the pokecenter.

Lucki cast a wistful glance toward the Rustboro Gym, but continued on southward to Route 104. Silver hadn't been strong enough to win against Atki's delcatty. They needed more training before they'd be ready to take on a gym leader.

Once there, she released Silver. "We need to do some more practice before we'll be ready to try for a badge," Lucki explained. "We'll start with your water gun."

Silver nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah."

"Let's start by practicing your targeting," Lucki stated. She looked around. "See that round knothole on that tree over there? Try to hit that."

Silver's first shot was too high, but after a few tries she could hit it right in the center.

"Okay, now switch to that rock over there."

Silver nodded. She turned to aim. This time it took her fewer tries to hit it properly.

Lucki continued switching Silver's targets, making them smaller and further off as Silver improved, until she could hit any of them on the first try.

"Great Silver, you're really getting the hang of it. Let's practice power now." Lucki set one of the small rocks from the ground on the start of the bridge over the Lilypetal Lake. "See how far you can push it."

Silver inhaled and shot a pellet of water toward the rock, sending it clattering over several feet of wooden planks.

"Good. Now, keep going until you knock it off the other side."

This took a number of tries, but finally the grey stone reached the end of the straight area of the bridge and plunked into the water. Silver sighed and sat back, tired out.

"Let's break for lunch," Lucki decided. She settled down on a patch of dry grass and pulled out the gadget her father had given her. With the press of a few buttons Silver's pokemon food and a prepacked sandwich appeared. Lucki poured out Silver's meal and handed it to the squirtle, then started on her own food. The two ate contentedly for several minutes.

When they finished, Lucki and Silver headed back to the bridge end. Lucki set a second rock down on the edge and they continued practicing until Silver could knock it off with a single water gun.

"Well, Silver," Lucki commented, "I think you've really improved. Plus, it's getting late, so let's head back, okay?"

Silver nodded. "Yeah, I'm tired.:"

Lucki recalled her and trotted back toward Rustboro.

She reentered the pokecenter and went back up to the counter, giving Nurse Joy Silver again. "How's the taillow doing?" Lucki asked.

Nurse Joy smiled. "He seems to be recovering well." She healed the squirtle quickly and handed it back.

"Thanks." Lucki took Silver's pokeball back.

"You're a new trainer from the Verdanturf Pokemon School, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Lucki affirmed.

"Would you be interested in getting another pokemon? A local breeding center just closed. I've found homes for most of them, but I've still got one left. He's never battled before, and he's a bit old, but there's no reason he couldn't be trained as a fighter. Would you be interested in taking a look?"

"Sure," Lucki told her. "What type?"

"He's a fire type, and since you've started with a water pokemon, you could probably use him."

Nurse Joy led Lucki off into one of the pokemon rooms. From the size, Lucki thought there had probably been a lot to start, but there was only one there now.

He was an adolescent. Lucki could tell because he was a bit smaller than a full-grown adult. She realized Nurse Joy must have meant a bit old to have never battled rather than in general. The flareon was covered in fluffy red and white fur and looked quite healthy. He looked somewhat bored and glanced up as they entered.

"I'll take him," Lucki decided. "If that's okay with you, flareon?" The flareon wagged his tail and barked agreeably, walking over.

*

"Okay," Lucki said, fastening the translator around the flareon's neck. "Try that out."

"Hello," the flareon tried.

"Now you just need a nickname. Do you have one?"

"No. I was the only flareon there, so I was just called that."

Lucki thought for a moment, but nothing came to mind. "I'll just call you Flare for now, until I can think of a better nickname," she decided. She headed to the checkout counter to buy the translator. Then she headed back to the pokecenter for supper.

_ Day Ten _

Lucki returned to Route 104. "Silver, today I want you to practice keeping your attack going. See how long you can sustain a water gun. Flare, do you know ember?" He nodded. "Okay then, we'll practice aiming that."

They trained for a few hours.

"I'm exhausted," complained Silver.

"You've been working hard," agreed Lucki. "I guess you deserve a break. Why don't you go swimming?"

"Swimming?" Silver repeated uncertainly, casting a glance to the nearby lake shore.

"Sure. Don't all squirtle like swimming?"

"I don't know. I've never gone swimming," admitted Silver.

"Then you definitely need to," Lucki stated. "Go on, try it out."

Silver nodded and headed over to the shoreline. She gingerly entered the shallows.

Lucki turned back to Flare, only to realize he was no longer there. The fire type had trotted away a few yards. He looked playful, his tail wagging slightly, then ran a few more feet, looking over his shoulder at her as if daring her to chase him.

"Hey, come back here!"

She chased him about for several minutes before managing to catch him. It wasn't that hard, though, once she started to try. "Whew..." she sighed. "I guess you're not tired out. You up for more training, then?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Back to target practice then."

At lunchtime, the three took a break to eat and rest.

"Hey! Stop!" a man's voice shouted as someone raced past Lucki. By the time Lucki had processed she had seen an older teen in the heavy red outfit of a Team Magma uniform, hood up, with one hand wrapped around the handle of a plain grey briefcase, his pursuer had reached her side. He was an older man with brown hair in a dark grey suit, breathing heavily.

"You're a trainer," he gasped. "Please, can you catch him?"

Lucki looked at the Team Magma member's retreating figure. He was heading into the Petalburg Woods. She nodded, recalling her two pokemon, and took off after him.

The forest was gloomy and tangled. For the first several steps while her eyes were adjusting she was half blind and had to hope she was still on the path and wouldn't run into a rock or bush, but then her eyes adapted and she was able to make out the inner forest and then the dulled red of the Team Magma outfit where the older boy was resting. He had seen her as well and took off a second later, but she charged after. He was tired, so she gained on him. The Petalburg path was twisty and hard to see while you were running at top speed. The Team Magma member took a wrong turn and wound up cornered against the bushes.

"Give that back!" she ordered.

Instead he threw out one of his pokeballs. A small pokemon not much larger than the shiny rattata Lucki had seen two days ago appeared. Despite this, its dark, thick fluffy fur, yellow eyes and huge visible fangs made it appear more intimidating. "Tackle, poochyena!"

She picked Silver. "Water gun!"

The bite pokemon charged toward the tiny turtle, who inhaled and then shot a stream of water directly into it, knocking it back. While the half-dazed and soaked dark type lay stunned, Silver ran forward and collided with it in her own tackle attack. The poochyena bit her but its jaws closed on the side of her shell, slipping off with a clack as they snapped together. A second water gun knocked it away.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "From Team Aqua?"

"Of course not!" Lucki snapped. "Another water gun, Silver!"

"Sunny day!" the boy ordered. The poochyena growled softly, shaking its fur out. Light streamed through the tree leaves, brightening the battle area even more than the field Lucki had come from. "Now mud-slap!"

While Silver was blinking in the sudden light, the poochyena spun and kicked with its back legs, sending mud flying into her face. While Silver was trying to get it out of her eyes, the doglike pokemon tried another bite attack, this time on her tail. Silver jumped in surprise and shook it off. Once she could see again, she sent another water gun at it, but this time it was further away and dodged.

"Try another tackle!" called Lucki.

Silver nodded. She charged the smaller dark type and rammed into it. The poochyena fainted.

The Team Magma boy swore, recalling the fainted bite pokemon. "Here!" he snapped, flinging the briefcase at her hard enough to knock her backward and taking off into the bushes.


	3. story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will be using a mixture of the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald storylines, although not as a primary focus. However, don't assume you know how things will work out. The plotline may take elements from the different games, but the particular mix is, as far as I know, the only time it's been used in the fandom.

Lucki got back up and dusted herself off.

"What now?" Silver asked, staring in the direction the Team Magma member had vanished.

"We got the briefcase back, and I don't know if I can catch up with him again," Lucki replied, walking up to Silver and applying a potion to her bruises and cuts. She recalled Silver and jogged back out of the forest.

"Oh! You got it!" the man shouted, seeing the briefcase in her slightly dusty hands.

"Sure, it was no problem," Lucki told him as she handed it over. "What is it, anyway?"

"This briefcase contains submarine blueprints," the dark suited man explained, "Although I don't know why Team Magma cares about Devon blueprints."

"Oh, Devon?" Lucki repeated. "Cool, you work for them?"

The older man nodded. "Thank you for your help," he told her. "I don't have anything with me, but if you come back to the company with me, I can give you something.

Lucki agreed. She quickly picked up her bag from where she'd placed it while the three of them had been resting and headed back to Rustboro with him. This time, after entering the city, he led her up past the center and then to the left, and they arrived at a huge building that looked sort of Gothic Victorian rather than the headquarters of a massive cutting edge company. The brownstone had arches and pillars in places that seemed purely decorative, and tall narrow archaically styled windows like of a monastery. Inside was a spacious reception area with old-fashioned furniture sitting on a red carpet. The man leading Lucki headed over to the receptionist behind a long counter and talked to her quickly, then ran off.

He reappeared a few minutes later with a card - and without, Lucki noticed, the briefcase. "This is a ferry pass," he told her. "It allows you to ride the ferries for free. It should be pretty helpful for a trainer."

"Wow!" Lucki gasped.

He smiled. "Those blueprints you saved were part of a multimillion-dollar project, and whatever the thief and Team Magma were planning to do with them, it's something I'm sure we're better off without. You earned this." He excused himself for his meeting and Lucki exited Devon.

She headed southward and stopped at the center to heal Silver and Flare, who Lucki thought despite his enthusiasm was probably pretty tired by now. Nurse Joy healed the two quickly and Lucki stepped back outside.

This time, she headed for the Rustboro Gym. She and Silver had trained, battled and even taken out a member of Team Magma, they should be ready to at least try for a Stone Badge.

The Gym wasn't far from the center, and she reached it within a few minutes. Confidently she headed inside.

It was a bit odd for a rock gym. Under her feet was weirdly patterned tile, alternating diamond-oriented pink squares with blue plus signs. The walls were rough like unfinished stone, although it was dyed or painted in pink as well. What Lucki assumed was a stadium area was in the center, looking like the floor of a cave. On either side of it were rock platforms for the challenging trainer and gym leader to stand on.

An older teenaged girl who was practically a young adult was waiting there. She wore a grey dress that had long sleeves with a slight flare around the wrist and a white collar that looked somewhat schoolteachery until one got to the skirt, which terminated well above her knees, leaving the rest of her legs covered only in red tights. She had long brown hair that was arranged somewhat like an Officer Jennies, and tied back with a large pink ribbon in a bow into a split ponytail. That was Roxanne.

"I challenge you to a one-on-one battle," Lucki announced.

Roxanne nodded. "All right." She and Lucki walked over to their two platforms. Roxanne picked a pokeball and opened it, releasing an odd-looking pokemon about three feet tall. The whole body seemed to be made of a head, with a heavy protruding brow and holes on either side for ears located midway down its sides. It looked as if it had literally been chiseled from rock, with flat planes rather than the rounded look of nearly every pokemon. Its arms looked like mostly flattened pyramids that were attached on one end, rotating weirdly as it settled itself, and its legs were the shape of metal washers. They didn't look as if they should work, but it lifted one and then the other before being still. It was colored completely blueish-grey except for the large protruding nose, which was bright red. It was magnetic, Lucki knew. Higher level nosepass could even use some electric attacks with it, but she probably wouldn't run into that in this battle.

Lucki sent out Silver. "Okay, Silver, you can do this."

"Tackle," commanded Roxanne.

"Water gun! Try to stop it!"

As the compass pokemon ran at her, Silver blasted at it with high pressure stream of water. The rock-type slowed slightly but didn't falter, pushing through the attack into Silver. She retaliated with a second quick water gun to the eyes and then jumped right to avoid the other pokemon's body slam. While it was down she tried a tackle, only to bounce back off its side.

The nosepass seemed unfazed, although Lucki didn't know if that was just because its expression was pretty set.

"Rock tomb!" shouted Roxanne.

The gym leader's pokemon stamped one polygon leg with a low grunting cry. Smallish rocks, about the size of Lucki's fist, rained down in a small circle around Silver, piling up into walls just over the water type's head, then they collapsed inward, covering the tiny turtle in a triangular pile of rocks. Underneath Silver began struggling, and the outer rocks began to roll off. Meanwhile the nosepass stumped over to the trapped water type, then, at Roxanne's command, jumped into the air for a second to land atop Silver and the rocks in a body slam. This scattered the stones but Silver was only pinned under this new and larger rock. She wiggled and managed to pull herself out, her rounded shell almost popping her loose when the weight shifted.

"Another water gun, Silver!"

Silver nodded, shooting another water gun at the nosepass while it struggled to right itself again. This one seemed stronger than the previous attacks, knocking the hefty stone pokemon onto its side, leaving its legs to wave uselessly a moment in the air before it rolled over and levered itself up with its stiff arms.

"Tackle again!"

The nosepass struck Silver again, sending her skidding over the ground on her shell, spinning about. Silver looked dazed as she stood back up.

"And now rock tomb!"

Silver threw herself to the side. She was struck by a couple of the assembling stones, which bounced off her back, but otherwise managed to get out of the way of the attack. She took a deep breath and sent another powerful water gun at the rock type, knocking it over. It flailed its legs weakly but rather than get up it stilled.

Roxanne sighed, closing her light ruby eyes for a second, then recalling her pokemon. She hopped off the rock platform and over toward Lucki. The two girls shook hands. "You battled well," Roxanne praised. She handed Lucki a small grey badge. "The Stone Badge is yours."

*

Stepping out of the center after resting her two pokemon, Lucki looked northward. With the Rustboro Gym defeated, it was finally time to head on. Impatiently she broke into a trot as she headed out of the city.

She slowed down once she reached Route 115. The cement sidewalk petered out to a wide sandy path with grassy meadow on either side, a drier version of the area she, Silver and Flare had been training in. There were some trees to her right and over to her left she could see a slope leading to a golden beach and the ocean. The wind was blowing off it and she was just close enough to smell a slight ting of salt. She sent out both of her pokemon and the three began to walk along the path.

"Oh, hey!" she shouted, seeing a bluehaired boy up ahead. "Jonic!" She recognized him from school. He turned, yellow eyes looking surprised when he saw her.

"Oh, hi," he greeted. A beautifly flapped near his shoulder, and one side of the green shirt he wore lightly flecked with golden powder from its wings.

"Wow! You've already evolved your pokemon to its third stage!" Lucki admired.

"Well, I got it as a silcoon," Jonic admitted modestly. "We've been practicing a lot since then. So you decided to go this way too?"

Lucki nodded. "I figured that, since my starter was a water type, it'd be the best move to go for the Rustboro Gym," she explained. "Hey! Let's have a battle! Flare could use some practice."

"Yeah," he agreed. He turned to the beautifly. "Sorry, but you'll be sitting this one out. You can't take on a fire type." The Beautifly sighed, sounding disappointed, but didn't object. Jonic picked the other pokeball around his waist, which was the same pure white as Silver's pokeball, releasing a fluffy brown foxlike pokemon with big chocolate eyes.

"Tackle!" Lucki announced.

"Sand attack!"

The eevee spun around and began kicking up a tornado of sandy dirt, half-blinding Flare, who turned his head and closed his eyes in response. The normal type quickly took advantage of this and tackled his squarely in the chest, jumping back when Flare tried to retaliate. It circled around, Flare turning awkwardly to try to keep up and prevent the unevolved pokemon from getting behind him, then darted forward and bit Flare on his side. Flare tried to shake himself loose and the eevee released him, backing up again.

"Focus, Flare!" called Lucki. "Hit it with ember!"

Flare nodded. The eevee began circling again. Flare send a fireball at it, knocking the evolution pokemon off its paws. It quickly scrambled upright again, looking wary.

"Finish it off with take down!"

The eevee focused and then rocketed toward Flare. The fire type send another ember attack toward the other pokemon, but the unevolved pokemon powered through it as if it wasn't there and smashed into Flare, the force strong enough to faint him.

Lucki sighed. She knew Flare was still inexperienced, but there was something unpleasant about losing to a lower-stage evolution of your pokemon.

"Good battle, Lucki," Jonic told her, petting his recovering eevee.

"You were great," she replied, spraying a potion onto Flare. "Your eevee's really impressive, fighting like that."

"Maybe we'll battle again," Jonic mentioned.

"I hope so," Lucki replied as Flare got to his feet and shook himself. "Bye!"

"Bye!"

Lucki headed on. The path sloped upward as she got closer to the mountains. Ledges started jutting across the landscape and pine trees began appearing in force.

Silver said something Lucki didn't catch, and then "I feel a lot better." Lucki was about to ask what Silver had been talking about when she detoured around another ledge, rounded a corner and there it was, Meteor Falls. It rose from the surrounding forest, a huge mass of bare yellow-grey rock. She could see the entrance a little way up, carved stone steps leading up the flat plateau the cave mouth opened onto. She started up.

"Oof!" gasped Silver as she slipped on one of the steps and fell, smacking her chest into the rock edge. She tried again, trying to push herself up with her arms and swing a leg up, but she couldn't quite reach.

"Why don't you rest in your pokeball for a while?" asked Lucki. "Until we're past this area."

"Okay," agreed Silver, sounding relieved.

"Flare? How about you?"

Flare shook his head and began climbing. He seemed to be able to handle it. Shortly they reached the platform and entered the cave.

The rock was a muddy sediment color, and the air was damp and clammy, in contrast to the dry warm air outside. Pools of water lay in shallow depressions, in some areas, against walls, they looked like a massive waterfall had paused. Somewhere beyond where she could see, Lucki could hear the churning of a real and very active waterfall. Flare shifted next to her.

"You sure you want to stay out?" Lucki asked.

"I'm fine," Flare replied.

They continued on. Lucki saw a set of more steps to her right, and she headed up them, onto the next flat area. From there, she could see the waterfall crashing down a few yards ahead. It sent up a fine mist she could feel against her face.

A smashing sound brought her out of her trance. She spun as Flare yelped in surprise and jumped back into her legs. A bagon snorted, raising its head from the fragments of the rock it had just smashed.

It looked a lot like any other bagon, with a white bony growth covering its head and growing down over the back of its head like a crest. It had two muscular legs and small arms, a large jaw with visible fangs and a tan stomach. But its blueish purple skin was covered in red scrapes, and the hard white horn of its head was bloody.

"Oh! Are you okay-" Lucki started to ask. It growled, lowered its head and changed Flare, who scrambled out of the way. Then suddenly Flare tackled it, knocking it off its feet. "What? Flare, don't!"

"He wants to fight," Flare replied. The bagon looked at her and grunted, nodding once.

"Even still, I don't think it'd be good for either of us. bagon are strong pokemon, and he's obviously high level to have ventured this far out."

"Let me just try. He's the one who challenged us."

The bagon hopped, handing inches from Flare and biting him. The flame pokemon yelped but then retaliated with his own bite, forcing the bagon to release him. He scrambled back, putting some distance between the two. The dragon type watched Flare, considering its next move. Then it lowered its head and barreled forward in another headbutt. Flare avoided this as well, and Lucki relaxed. The attack was powerful, but the bagon had to run in a straight line because of its weight and momentum. Flare wouldn't have any problem dodging that as long as he kept his distance.

"Flare, make sure you keep back!" she called. "You don't want its headbutt to connect!"

Flare nodded quickly. "I will."

The bagon scowled, then opened its mouth to spit out a gout of white flame, blanketing the area Flare was standing in. Lucki could feel the heat from where she was standing behind the bagon. Fire type or not, that attack would be brutal.

But when the attack faded, Flare was still standing there. He glowed slightly. Lucki gasped. He looked stronger suddenly, like an older and more powerful flareon. He inhaled and then sent out his own ember attack. It flared white, lighting up the dim cavern and hitting with such force it knocked the bagon across the stone and into the river. The dragon type growled, righting itself and hopping out of the water, only to be stuck by another massive ember attack and knocked back in. The water at the edge steamed for a moment.

"That's it, Flare!" Lucki called encouragingly. "Just keep hitting it with ember!"

It snarled from the water, then positioned itself and launched forward in another headbutt attack. Flare tried to stop the rock head pokemon with another flame, but the dragon type charged through it, visibly burned but undaunted. Its head struck his side and sent him flying to fall on one side. Lucki started to walk toward him, thinking he'd been knocked out again, but he got back up after a moment, hitting the bagon with another supercharged attack, then tackling the dragon type while it was blinded by flames. A third rapid ember knocked the bagon into the shallows of the water again.

Rather than attack again, it began to glow white. Lucki and Flare watched as the bagon grew in size, the bone on its head growing out on either side to wrap around its body. When the white glow faded, Lucki's eyes were met with the sight of a shelgon, a huge quadrupedal ball of white bone with two eyes staring out from the center. It began to lumber away.

Flare trotted over and she began administering a super potion. "He just left?" she wondered. "I guess he must have been trying to evolve." The glow was fading now, returning Flare to his normal look as the vibrancy drained away. He must have been tired by now. Lucki considered offering to recall him again, but figured he'd just refuse a third time. Besides, he'd shown he could handle himself well enough.

The two continued along. They didn't see any more bagon. Lucki saw a solrock over across the river, but none close up. Besides that and a few zubat that flew over their heads, they didn't see any other pokemon along the way. Before long, they had reached the exit and they headed out into the sunlight, with warm air blowing away the chill of the cave.

Outside it was rocky, with a wide path that wove around the cliffs. Lucki passed an older man hiking named Kino, who told her that while she was almost out of the mountain, she still had a good way to go before she'd reach Fallarbor Town.

"I guess we'd better get moving," she told Flare.

"Yeah."

As Kino had said, they found their way to the base of the mountain shortly, after following the twisty route down. But even though the area was now grassy, it was still steep and hard to travel. Lucki and Flare, hurrying, were jumping off ledges to try to get down faster. Lucki jumped off another.

"Ah! Altaria!" shouted a woman's voice suddenly, and Lucki ducked to avoid a large blue and white pokemon.rocketing at her head. "Oh, no, it's not them." Lucki looked up cautiously to see a young woman wearing glasses with thick brown hair tied back with a green headband. "I'm sorry," she apologized, helping Lucki up. "One of those Teams was skulking about earlier, and I've been worrying they're up to something. I mistook you for them."

The altaria returned to hover near the woman's shoulder. "You did come out of nowhere," he commented idly, not sounding nearly as apologetic.

"Oh, my name's Lanette," she added. "What's yours?"

"Lanette? You mean, you're the one who created the newest Pokemon Storage System?" Lucki gasped. "I'm Lucki."

"So you've heard of me?" Lanette smiled. "It really wasn't creating though, just some modifications to the original system. Actually, it's that system that made me so worried. I don't think they would be interested in visiting me or hiking around the cave, so I was suspicious they might be intending to get control of the Storage System for some goal of theirs. They disappeared a little while ago, but I'm still a little anxious."

"Unnecessarily so," the Altaria added.

"Oh. I haven't seen any on my way here," Lucki mentioned. "Although I did see one in Rustboro."

"Well, with any luck neither of us will be seeing any more of them," Lanette remarked. "Still, Altaria and I had better get back. Goodbye!"

"Goodbye!"

Lanette headed off along the path and Lucki continued on with Flare along her more direct route.


	4. of a

It wasn't long before Lucki was out of the hilly area and on flat ground again. She waded through the tall grass, Flare bounding along a bit clumsily next to her. Peering ahead she saw that not far off the tall grass ended and the sandy tan path began, just before the edge of Meteor Lake. Over that lay the deep russet bridge, stretching out of sight, toward the distant opposite side.

Lucki made her way through the end of the grass and to the shore, where the clear blue waves lapped inches from her white shoes. They lapped over the edges of the bridge as well, so that the wood was soaked although not submerged. Up ahead she could see fishermen struggling to land goldeen and magikarp, causing water to surge up in huge waves where they were standing to swamp the surrounding area.

"I'd better recall you," Lucki mentioned to Flare. He nodded, eying the way before them nervously, and she took out his pokeball and recalled him.

Lucki began making her way across the wooden planks, moving careful to try not to splash water into her shoes as she went through the wetter areas. She narrowly avoided being directly splashed a few times when a fisherman suddenly hooked a pokemon, but the mist sprayed into the area left her somewhat damp by the time she made it to the other side.

She continued on along the now dark reddish ground, passing small ponds that dotted the area. Rather than grass there was some low-lying plant with round leaves and white flowers, and some petite, graceful trees with branches laden with greenery in clumps.

Lucki came upon an older, neatly dressed in dark gray man sitting on a bench by the side of the brown trail. A poochyena with white-flecked fur lay beside him, eyes closed and head resting in its paws. Its ears twitched at her approach and the dark type raised its head and roared, then lay its head back down without even opening its eyes. Lucki looked at the bite pokemon, not sure what to make of it.

"Oh, don't mind him," the man explained, standing. "He just likes using the move." He reached down and scratched the thick salt-and-pepper colored fur on his pokemon's neck. "My name is Ian Jennings. What's yours?

"I'm Lucki Middling."

"Are you heading to Fallarbor?"

Lucki nodded. "Is it close?" she requested.

"You're nearly there," he responded. "Just a bit ahead. Could you do me a favor, though? You see, I've been trying to catch a nuzleaf, but they're quite shy and my poochyena can't stay quiet for any length of time, and as he's my only pokemon…" Punctuating this statement, the poochyena roared again.

Lucki nodded again. She could see how that would be a problem. "I've only just started, so my pokemon aren't that strong," she told him. "But I do have a fire type. I'm sure he'd be able to handle a nuzleaf."

"Really? Do you think I could borrow him? It shouldn't take too long, as I know where to find them."

"Okay, let me just explain to him." Lucki released Flare and told him what was going on.

"You'll be staying at the pokecenter today, won't you?" Jennings asked. "I'll drop him off there, all right?"

"Sure," Lucki replied, "No problem." She waved goodbye as they headed off under the trees. As she started to go, the poochyena jumped up and began to trot along with her like a small but very noisy escort.

The road turned sharply right and she found herself facing what looked like farmed fields, with small seedlings sprouting up in squares of cultivated, dark soil. She passed a house with a weird sign proclaiming  _ Ultimate Fossil Expert in Residence! _ and then she had reached Fallarbor Town. The poochyena roared yet again and then started back the way they had come, tail wagging cheerfully, no doubt intending to meet up with Jennings.

Looking around Lucki thought it seemed a lot more rural than Rustboro had been, with only a few buildings and houses, and unpaved roads a lot like the one on the route she'd just been traveling. Lucki sneezed. And dusty too. It seemed very dry, despite all the water she'd seen along her way in.

Lucki headed in, planning to head to the pokecenter and stay the night. Along the way she saw a huge domed building. It had four red columns that curled to meet at the top, blue sides and white accents. In design it resembled the tent she had in her bag. Over the door was a huge copy done in blue and white of the four pokeball symbol of the Hoenn Pokemon League. She went over to investigate. The sliding doors opened automatically to let her in when she approached.

Lucki entered. It was spacious inside. She looked around and saw a girl her age with obsidian blue hair in a shoulder-length ponytail wearing a white shirt and short, pleated blue skirt. "Hi," she greeted. "What's this place?"

The girl turned, dark emerald eyes focusing on Lucki's face. "Oh, it's a Battle Tent," she explained. "It's a new competition they've just started. You have to battle people according to special rules. It's only here for two weeks, and then they move to a different town to hold a different competition. The last one was in Slateport, and I heard it had a different set of rules than here, but I missed it."

"Really? Cool. Thanks." Lucki trotted across the alternating dark and light round tiles of the floor, up to the short line by the counter. After a short wait she reached the front.

"What pokemon will you register?" the young brown haired man asked.

She only had Silver at the moment, so she handed him the white pokeball. "Silver, my squirtle," she stated.

The man took it, nodding, and placed it onto a platform near his computer. The machine beeped. He gave her the pokeball back with a piece of paper that had 18 on it and pointed to one side. "Go through the second door to your left."

"Okay, thanks." Lucki headed over and opened the door. There were seven other trainers inside, each with only a single pokeball, as well as an adult dressed in white. Across from here were three more doors.

"Welcome, trainers," the man announced. "In a moment, you will begin your Battle Tent challenge. The rules are simple. You and your opponent have three turns to defeat each other's pokemon. If neither pokemon has fainted by the end, a judge will determine the winner based on three categories: Mind, Skill and Body. The first reflects how aggressively you battled, the second how effective your moves were, and the third how healthy your pokemon is by the end. Whoever makes it through three consecutive battles will be rewarded with a prize." He gestured behind him towards the doors. "You will battle in the rooms behind me based on your assigned number. 12 and 15, step forward." An orange-haired girl and green haired boy did so. The man directed them through one door. "11 and 18, step forward."

Lucki and another boy stepped forward and the announcer directed them through a different door.

Inside was another adult, the judge, behind who was another door. "Take your positions at either side of the area and begin," he ordered.

Lucki looked over at her opponent, who had short purple hair and seemed like he was her age. She hoped she could do this. She went to one side of the small wooden floored arena and sent out Silver. Her opponent released a surskit, a small blue pokemon with a round body held up by four pencil-thin delicate legs.

"Okay, Silver, we've only got three moves, so be careful," Lucki called out. "Start off with tackle!"

"Quick attack, surskit," the boy responded.

Silver nodded, running at her opponent. The surskit raced along the floor as well, jumping at the last second to collide with Silver and bouncing it off one shoulder. Silver was pushed back a set as the surskit skidded along the ground, splaying out its legs to keep its balance.

"Great, again," Lucki stated.

"Try to slow it down with bubble!"

The bug-water type began to spew a froth of tiny bubbles towards Silver as she approached, but the tiny turtle seemed barely hindered, pushing her way through the foam without effort to hit the pond skater, flipping it over and sending it back almost to its trainer's feet. It righted itself but Silver tackled it a third time, stunning it.

The judge declared Lucki victorious and told her to continue through the door.

In the next room was a red-headed girl in a light summer dress who Lucki recognized as another of the group from the start, as well as a healing machine for pokemon. The judge took Silver's pokeball and placed it inside. When it was finished, he told them to begin their battle.

Lucki and Silver took their places. The other girl bit her lip and then sighed, sending out a large numel. Without hesitation Lucki ordered a water gun. The numb pokemon managed to force its way through the attack for a single tackle, but then with a sigh much like the girl's was knocked over by the water attack and didn't bother to get up. Anticlimactically the judge told Lucki she was the winner and she went through the last door.

The other trainer hadn't arrived yet, so there was only the judge waiting there. By the time Silver had been healed the other trainer had arrived, a dark grey haired teen. He sent out a gulpin.

Lucki looked at the weird round green pokemon suspiciously. It had only two small protrusions for arms on either side of its huge head, and no real body. A yellow feather stuck up from the center of its forehead like a hat's plume. It didn't look like it'd be much trouble.

"Pound," her opponent stated.

The gulpin began to hunch its body across the field toward Silver.

"Water gun, Silver!"

Silver shot out a jet of water. Unperturbed, the gulpin opened its mouth widely and simply swallowed the attack, then returned to its slow crawl. Reaching Silver, it humped its body up and struck her over the head with one small arm.

Lucki remembered now. Gulpin would try to minimize damage by swallowing all projectile attacks. Inexperienced trainers would sometimes make the mistake of thinking it was absorbing the attacks without taking any damage, which wasn't true. It was only that a gulpin's practically iron-clad insides were better suited to taking the damage. "Hit it in the side or back, Silver, you'll do more damage!" she called.

"Quick, poison gas!"

Silver ran to one side. The Gulpin started to turn to face her, but before it could finish she released another water gun. The Gulpin's soft side bent under the force and, shocked, its mouth opened, releasing a puff of amethyst vapor. The poison quickly diffused away, but part of it blew over Silver, whose skin took on a faint purple tint. She wobbled slightly.

"Use another pound!" the boy called.

"Quick, withdraw!"

Silver vanished into her shell. The gulpin's attack glanced off her.

Lucki was about to try another move when the judge called, "Cease!"

She rushed over to Silver, administering an antidote before the poisoning could get worse, then looked to the judge. He seemed to be deliberating. "Both of you were equal in Mind. But the Squirtle did more damage in attacking and despite the poisoning is in better overall health." He turned to Lucki. "I declare you the winner." He took out a small bag and handed it to her. "Inside is a random TM."

Lucki thanked him and proceeded out through a side door, back into the main lobby and then outside again. She continued further on to the pokecenter.

"Hey Flare," she called, seeing the fire type lying at the foot of one of the waiting couches. "How'd it go?"

He loped over. "It took a little while to find one," he replied, "But the rest went fine."

"Good. Okay, return," Lucki decided, pulling Flare's pokeball over her belt and pressing the center button. The flame pokemon was sucked inside. She then headed over to Nurse Joy. "Excuse me, could I have a room tonight?" she requested.

Nurse Joy nodded. "Of course, here," she responded, taking a room key out and handing it to Lucki. "Have you seen Prof. Cosmo, by any chance?" she asked. "He lives around here."

"No, I only just got here," Lucki stated.

"Well, if you get the chance, you should see him. Apparently he's found something interesting. He lives in the long white split-story house down the street from here."

"Thanks for telling me," Lucki replied. "I guess I'll visit." She said goodbye and headed out again, following the street for a bit. Before long she same to a place that matched Nurse Joy's description. Heading up, she read on the mailbox  _ Cosmo _ . She walked up the steps and rang the doorbell.

After a moment a middle-aged man with dark brown hair and a long white lab coat answered the door. "Oh, hello. You're a trainer? Come in."

Lucki nodded, stepping through the door. "Nurse Joy told me you found something?"

"Yes, although exactly what I'm still working on. Would you mind letting me see your pokemon?"

"Sure," Lucki responded.

"Okay, come this way." He led her down the hall into his lab. The place was white with polished steel countertops, and everything was perfectly clean and uncluttered. A large pedestal shaped machine stood near the center of the room. A clear round dome covered the top, allowing her to see a large metallic stone sitting in the center. "I recently found this meteor, and I'm trying to discover its properties. Have you ever heard of moon stones?" he asked.

"Yes," Lucki told him. "They're a type of meteorite, right?"

"Exactly. This isn't a moon stone, but it seems to be something similar. I'm trying to see how it responds to different pokemon. Could you let out one of your pokemon?"

Lucki released Silver. The tiny turtle looked around with interest as Prof. Cosmo stooped to tap a few buttons on the machine. It hummed a moment, then quieted.

"And the other?"

Lucki recalled Silver and sent out Flare. The professor repeated his motions.

"Hm…" He sounded surprised. "This is problematic."

"What's wrong?" Lucki asked.

"I checked another flareon earlier, and got a different result. I'm not sure what to make of this." He sighed. "Clearly, a lot more work is needed." He turned back to Lucki. "Which way are you headed?"

"I'm going to Lavaridge, then down to Mauville."

"Ah. If I find anything more, would you mind sending me your flareon to retest? This might just be a glitch in the machine," he mentioned, not sounding convinced.

"Yeah, sure," Lucki told him. "Tell me if you figure it out."

"Of course."

Lucki said goodbye and headed back to the pokecenter.

_ Day Nine _

The next morning, Lucki asked Nurse Joy what the best route to Lavaridge was.

Nurse Joy considered. "Probably the Mt. Chimney Lift. It's a long hike otherwise," she responded. "That'll bring you up to the top. From there, there's a path down to Lavaridge. It's along the road out, so you can't miss it."

"Thanks!" Lucki replied, heading out.

She sneezed as soon as she stepped outside. She kicked the ground lightly, expecting to scuff up a puff of dirt. Instead the toe of her sneaker bounced off. It was too hard packed.

_ Whatever _ , Lucki thought. She continued along, sneezing again. She noticed the plants on the side of the path were starting to look dusty. Before long the air itself was cloudy with a fine dust, and then she could see larger flecks of ash. These coated everything.

"Boo!" shouted an ash pile, exploding.

"Ah!" Lucki jumped. When the powder cleared she could see a younger, very dusty boy in its place. His face was smeared with soot and he was wearing a ninja costume, complete with what looked like a toy sword in a sheath.

"Haha, got you! Now you've got to battle!"

"You could have just asked," Lucki grumbled.

The boy ignored her and enthusiastically hurtled a pokeball into the air, without even introducing himself.

An insectoid pokemon materialized on the ground. It was a very white grey, except for its two foremost legs, which were a brown, wooden color, and two small things on its back, the size and color of leaves, that might have been wings. It was nincada, a bug type, Lucki remembered. She touched Flare's pokeball, about to send him out, when she remembered that it was a dual type, part bug and part ground. She released Flare's pokeball and moved her hand forward, to Silver's pokeball. She grasped it and threw it out.

"Scratch!" shouted the ninja-boy excitedly, jumping up and down once.

"Oh no, look out!" Lucki cried, but it was no use. The nincada hopped forward and scratched Silver the moment she materialized. Silver shouted in surprise and stumbled back.

"Water gun!" Lucki added quickly.

Silver nodded. "Right!" She inhaled deeply and sent a jet of water at the nincada. It shuddered under the assault.

"Use dig to get out of reach," decided the ninja-boy.

The trainee pokemon rapidly scooped up dirt with its brown front legs and disappeared into the hole it made. "Huh?" asked Silver, walking over to peer into the hole. As she was leaning over to look in better, the ground under her legs exploded and the nincada sent her flying face-first into the hole.

Silver yelled, her voice muffled by the dirt. She pulled her head out and sent another burst of water at her opponent, but the nincada was already burrowing back into the ground. Uncertainly, Silver looked around herself, trying to figure out where it was.

"It's going to come from below you," Lucki advised. "Just wait for it to attack and hit it with another water gun."

Silver nodded. "Okay." Before she could do anything more, the nincada erupted from the ground again. She hit it with another water gun, managing to do more damage, but it rapidly burrowed out of sight.

Silver fixed her eyes on the ground below her determinedly. After a few long seconds, the bug type erupted from the ground again, only to be met with an answering blast of water gun, shoving it back into the hole. Silver kept up the attack for a few more seconds, until the hole was filled with water, then stopped and looked around, expecting another attack.

Instead, a rather bedraggled nincada struggled out of the water and pulled itself onto dry land where it collapsed, breathing in relieved pants.

"Return," the ninja-boy announced. Before Lucki could say anything, the boy shouted, "Haha! I'll beat you next time!" and darted into the tall grass.

_ What a weird kid _ , Lucki thought.

"Wow, it's hot here," Silver observed.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Lucki responded. She hadn't really noticed until then. "We're near a volcano. Want to return?"

Silver nodded and Lucki returned her to her pokeball and continued on.

Lucki saw some other kids up ahead running about with bags they held open. The ash was coming down even more heavily there.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked. Up close, she could see the weave of the bags were weird, allowing light through the gaps, except near the bottoms.

The nearest girl stopped. "Oh, hey. We're collecting ash. There's a man who lives around her who can make really cool things with it. Wanna try?"

Lucki started to agree, but sneezed a third time. "No thanks," she asserted. "I'm heading to Lavaridge for a badge."

"On a pokemon journey, huh? Well, good luck!" The girl returned to running and Lucki returned to walking along the path.

Before long, Lucki saw a wooden signpost. Lift - it read.  _ Guess I'm close then _ . Soon she saw a small building with an oddly shaped roof, with one end sloping down to the ground like a triangle. Two long cables stretched out from behind it, leading to a long line of tall poles and stretching up the side of Mt. Chimney all the way to the peak.

Lucki entered the building through the open doorway. Inside was a simple room with tough grey tiling on the floor and walls, two green couches, a vending machine and small trashcan. Lucki headed over and bought a small lemonade. She was thirsty after the long walk in the dry heat.

Then, sipping her drink, she walked up to the light yellow cable car with three big windows on either side.  _ It looks like a car on a Ferris wheel _ , she thought, stepping inside. The doors shut behind her. Moments later, there was a hum of machinery and the car began to move.

Looking out the window Lucki saw the steep side of the mountain, clear even despite the thick growth of trees, by the way the tops of each further tree were above the ones before it. Lucki had been wondering if it would have been better to hike and see if she could get another pokemon, but now that she saw what she'd be up against… _ I'm glad I don't have to walk that, _ she thought with relief.

The trees rapidly turned to pure pines, and the ash grew thicker. As she traveled higher and higher, the pine trees petered out, leaving nothing but bare red rock. She approached the flat plateau of the top, then for a moment, crested above it. She only had a second to look at the flat roseate stone specked with a few people, not quite able to see into the crater herself because of the angle, before the cable car descended into the sister building of her starting place.

It came to a stop inside and the doors opened. Lucki stepped out into a room that was a mirror image of the first one, with the same two green couches and boring gray tiles –  _ Ashen colored, I wonder if that's why they picked it? _ Lucki mused. She tossed her lemonade bottle into the trash and headed out.

The ground was uneven, with small rises and pits. There were a few other people there, as she had seen on her way in, and looking more closely she saw that about half were adults. There was a small stand nearby selling something called lava cookies. Lucki bought one from the old woman and began to walk around, munching on it. She looked over the edge into the smoking crater, watching the molten rock bubble. It was impressive, but she needed to get going. She turned and headed off. There was a set of stone steps leading down into the forest on the other side of the crater, and she headed to them and started down.

The forest was dim and gloomy, with ash over everything. There were fewer pines on this side of the mountain than Lucki had seen on her ride up, but it seemed just as steep. She picked her way down carefully, glad she didn't have to make her way up this slope.

Lucki saw there were a few other trainers walking around, made conspicuous by the puffs of dust that rose around them as they transversed the grass. They must have been looking for pokemon that lived in the area. She wondered what they wanted in particular. So far, she'd only see a numel off a good distance from the path she was on, and Lucki remembered learning that those were common in a number of other, less forbidding areas, so she didn't think that was it. She remembered there was some pokemon that was unique to this area, Jagged Pass. What was it?

She jumped down a ledge into another clump of ash-covered plants, sending up a huge puff of dust.  _ Spoink! _ she realized. The psychic-type pig pokemon was considered a dependable fighter, and moderately popular among trainers, and it was only found here. If she could get one, it'd make a great addition to her team.

As the dust settled an odd flash of bright red caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to see a familiar red-hoodie-clad person hopping quickly down a thin path a little way away from her.

Team Magma again! Lucki started to follow, picking her way down as fast as she could. The crunching of her footsteps alerted her quarry, who looked over his shoulder to see her and then took off in a near run. Lucki tried to speed up, following the trail she saw him taking. What was Team Magma doing here, anyway? For that matter, what had they been doing in Rustboro or around Lanette's house? She was going to get some answers. Burning with determination, she started taking small jumps, landing in areas she'd seen him stand and knew were flat. She wasn't closing on him yet, but the gap stopped widening. And he couldn't keep running forever.

The Team Magma member turned suddenly and disappeared behind a huge rock. By the time she got there, there was no sign of him. Lucki looked all around her, trying to see some clue as to where he'd vanished, but there was nothing. He must have gotten into the trees while the boulder was blocking her view and either hidden or moved fast enough to be out of sight. Lucki sighed. She'd been so close…! She turned to go.

Her foot caught on something round and spongy, and she tripped, letting out an "Oof!" At the same time, something shouted "Spoink!"

Lucki rolled over to see an irate spoink near her foot righting itself and continuing to bounce, the giant pink pearl balanced perfectly atop its head between its ears. "Spoi! Poi!" it yelled.

_ Wow, who would have thought I'd _ trip _ over the very pokemon I wanted to find? _

The spoink continued to yell. "Spoink poi!" Another grey spoink popped out of the sooty grass, and then another.

What was a group of Spoink called? Lucki couldn't remember. The only thing that came to mind was a murder of murkrow, which was not encouraging. Lucki scrambled to her feet and found herself narrowly avoiding a psywave attack. "Ah!"

She thought it would be a good time to leave and turned to go, only to find herself face to face with an equally irate grumpig.

The black and purple manipulate pokemon looked every bit a dependable fighter, and pretty imposing at that, despite the fact the two black pearls lined up along its muzzle and third pearl on its stomach looked almost clownlike. It was an inch sort of three feet, but, Lucki reflected, it was amazing how intimidating that could be when it easily outweighed you, even with the combined weight of your bag.

But she did need more pokemon for her team. Lucki sent out Flare. She had been hoping for a chance to get a spoink, and a grumpig would be even better.

"Okay Flare, start off with ember!"

Flare nodded, releasing a small tennis-ball sized flame. The grumpig bounced back on its pink spiral tail once, then back to its two-toed feet, pushing out both its arms at the same moment. The ember attack hit against a wide ripple of psychic energy and bounced off at an angle. The manipulate pokemon repeated the motion, tossing Flare into the air with a second psywave. The evolved eevee twisted to land on his feet and the instant he touched the ground he jumped the grumpig with a quick attack. It was now the grumpig's turn to fly into the air. It landed on its side and bounced, seeming unaffected, and turned to land on its tail the second time. Right as it bounced off its tail back onto its feet, Flare hit it with a second ember attack.

The attack didn't seem very effective. Looking unfazed, the grumpig sent another psywave at Flare, who sprinted to the right, narrowly getting clear.

Lucki remembered that grumpig could have the thick fat characteristic, reducing the strength of fire or ice attacks. And this particular one looked unusually well-padded. Still, there were other attacks she could have Flare use. "Bite instead, Flare!"

Flare jumped for the grumpig again. It sent out yet another wave of psychic power, but Flare passed through unaffected, protected by the dark type energy of his attack. He bit into the psychic type's side once, then tried to back up. The manipulate pokemon retaliated with a beam of sparkling golden energy before he could do anything more, and in a moment he was swaying on his feet, confused.

Lucki recalled him and switched in Silver, ordering a water gun attack. Silver obliged, striking the other pokemon, but the grumpig quickly deflected it again. Silver stopped her attack and looked to Lucki for further suggestions. "Eep!" she shouted as she was lifted into the air by another burst of psychic energy, yanking herself into her shell for protection. She popped back out after landing.

"Okay, Silver, use your water gun again and wear it down. That grumpig can't keep blocking forever."

"Alright!" Silver agreed. She sent out another water gun. The manipulate pokemon did another tail bounce and released another energy wave, sending the water splattering all around. Silver kept up the stream of water. For several moments it seemed like a stalemate. Then the grumpig's attack failed. The water was inches away before it threw out another psychic burst. Lucki's strategy was working.

But then Silver's water stream narrowed. In another few seconds it stopped entirely. The tiny turtle panted in exhaustion. The grumpig angled its arms together, focusing its energy into a psybeam, the force stunning Silver and knocking her out.

Now what was Lucki going to do?

"Hey!"


	5. girl

Lucki heard a pokeball pop open. A large doglike pokemon with thick black and grey fur tackled the grumpig, knocking it to the side. It righted itself and sent a psybeam at the mightyena, without effect.

"Are you okay?" asked the trainer, a boy with short dark blond hair and amber eyes who looked like he was about fifteen. He was wearing jeans and a yellowish red shirt.

"Yeah," Lucki replied, blushing embarrassedly. She accepted his hand and got up off the ground.

The grumpig bounced off the side of a rock and launched itself into the bite pokemon for a body slam, but the dark type leapt into the air and dodged. Landing, it jumped after the manipulate pokemon, biting hard into the grumpig. The boy tossed a pokeball into the grumpig and it was sucked inside. The ball shook a moment and then settled.

The trainer retrieved the quiet pokeball and looked at it thoughtfully, patting his mightyena's head.

"So, what happened?" he asked Lucki, who was healing Silver with a potion.

"I was chasing a Team Magma member, but I lost him and I wasn't looking where I was going and stumbled over a spoink and then this grumpig showed up…Hey! Have you seen Team Magma around?"

"Nope," the boy responded. "They aren't around here. Maybe because people here train fire types, so they're not as impressed by the team. If you saw one, he was probably just passing through. Oh, my name's Keegan, by the way."

"I'm Lucki," she introduced. "Thanks for helping me out." The two started down the path.

"No problem, you helped me get a grumpig! You headed to Flannery's gym?"

Lucki nodded. "Yeah, you too?"

"Yep," he replied. "So, what pokemon do you have?"

"Besides my squirtle Silver here, just my flareon. You?"

"I've also got a numel," he answered. "Actually, that's why I'm here. I'm not interested in a badge, I just wanted some advice from Flannery on raising Numbel."

"Oh, is something wrong?"

"Nope," he stated again. "They're just kind of weird pokemon to raise, and I'm not sure I'm training mine to the best of his abilities. I figure Flannery would know more about it."

They reached the end of the forest. By this point the plants were green again, without even a light dusting of ash. They headed out into the sunlight.

Off to the east Lucki could see a steep drop broken only by small ledges. Beyond it was Route 112, she remembered. Once she had the Heat Badge, she'd be going that way.

But for now, she and Keegan headed west, into Lavaridge.

"Hey, is that your squirtle?" mentioned a blue-haired girl passing them on the sidewalk, half-kneeling to get a better look at Silver. "A real cutie. Is she your pet?"

"No, my starter."

"Oh," the girl responded. She looked from Silver to Lucki. "You're a coordinator, then?" she asked.

Lucki was starting to get annoyed. "No, I'm a trainer."

The other girl stood back up. "What? But –" she gestured towards Silver, "- it's obvious she's never going to be a fighter. There's no way she'll be able to keep up with trainer pokemon at the higher levels. You'd have to be insane to want to battle with her."

"Hey! Who do you think you are?" snapped Lucki. "Silver's no weakling! I challenge you to a battle!"

"No way," the girl replied contemptuously. "I'm not  _ that _ cruel." She walked off, leaving Lucki seething.

"That bitch!" Lucki grumbled to Keegan. "Who does she think she is, acting like that!"

"Oh, just ignore her. She probably just lost a battle and has to feel she's better than somebody," he dismissed.

"Yes, but – ooh, I can't believe she'd insult Silver and I like that!" Lucki stalked off toward the pokecenter. "Like to see what she'd think of us getting our second badge. Bet she doesn't even have one!" Lucki ranted.

She was still annoyed by the time her pokemon had healed, although she'd settled down somewhat. "Alright, let's go to the gym!" she announced as soon as she got her two pokeballs back.

"Confident, huh?"

"I'll never know unless I try, right?" Lucki responded, trotting out. "Ooh, hot springs!" They were passing large pond-sized pools of bubbling water, with people lounging and swimming about.

"Yeah, Lavaridge is famous for the springs. It and Verdanturf are the two major health resorts of all of Hoenn."

"Right," Lucki replied. "I remember hearing about that. It's supposed to be good to sit in the springs or the sand, right?"

"Uh-huh, although I don't know how true it is."

They reached the gym. As Lucki opened the door, a plume of steam billowed out. "Wow," she stated, entering, "it's like a sauna in here."

"Actually, it is one," Keegan responded. "Well, good luck. I'm not going to be battling, so I'm going ahead to meet with Flannery. Since you're a challenger, you'll have to go the long way, through the obstacle course."

"Obstacle course?" Lucki repeated nervously.

"Well, sort of." Keegan pointed ahead of them, where she could see several round holes filled with bubbling water. "Some of those are actually the tops of geysers of water. The gym channels them for this challenge. If you step into one of those, you'll wind up in the room below, and there are others that'll bring you back to the upper floor. You have to navigate through to the gym leader, fighting trainers along the way."

"That seems awfully hard," Lucki mentioned.

"Well, it's a good way of weeding out people who aren't serious, right?" Keegan pointed out.

"Right!" Lucki shouted with determination. She'd show she was serious! She marched forward and stepped into one of the bubbling holes.

"Ah!" she shouted as she fell through the boiling water and stumbled onto the ground. "Hot!"

"Well, it  _ is _ a hot spring, you know," mentioned a voice dryly.

"Huh?" Lucki wiped the water from her eyes and opened them to see a girl a few years older than her, with short black and red hair and a red outfit.

"I'm Lehava, one of the challenge trainers," she explained.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Lucki gasped, trying to catch her breath in the humid, hot air.

"Then pick your pokemon. If you win a one-on-one fight, you can continue."

Lucki nodded. "Go, Silver!"

"Go, Slugma!" The amorphous red lava pokemon appeared, its body rolling and bubbling like a slow-motion version of the pools of water. Two large oval eyes sat atop a raised bump that was the head, with plumes of almost feathery looking magma above them. Twin blobs of lava dangled on either side of its face, looking as if they were about to drop.

"Quick, water gun!"

"Stop it with a flamethrower!"

Silver's blast of water collided with the flames spouting from the slugma's mouth. The attacks exploded into a sheet of hot steam, temporarily obscuring everything from sight. But as the steam cleared Lucki could see Silver had kept up her water gun after the flamethrower had ended, striking the fire type square in the face and making the sluglike pokemon pull back into itself to concentrate its heat.

"Rock slide!"

The slugma re-extended its head. Its body rippled slightly but otherwise didn't move. Lucki thought that it hadn't used the attack, but then rocks appeared above Silver and dropped, burying the tiny turtle.

"Silver! Are you okay? Try to get out!" Lucki called.

After a few seconds, a blast of water shot out from the pile, punching a hole through the rocks. Silver climbed out.

"Yawn, Slugma, knock her out!"

The lava pokemon stretched its mouth to huge proportions, exhaling a small puff of steam or smoke as it did so.

"Hit it with another water gun!" Lucki shouted quickly.

Silver nodded and set another long water gun into the fire type. Its outer skin began to harden and turn grey as it cooled where the water was hitting, and rest of it curled up into a ball again. When the attack finished the slugma's liquid body stayed pooled in a lump. It had fainted, and the other girl recalled it.

Silver sat back, looking tired, then suddenly lay down and went to sleep.

"Oh! Silver!" Lucki ran over and picked the tiny turtle up. After a few moments, Silver opened her eyes and blinked sleepily.

"What's going on?"

"You fell asleep from the yawn attack."

"Oh." Silver yawned.

"You can heal your pokemon at the machine behind you," Lehava told Lucki.

Turning, Lucki saw that there was, in fact, a machine against one of the walls, tucked away in a drier corner. She recalled Silver and placed the shiny pokemon's pokeball on the machine's slot, then activated it. After a moment, it dinged and Lucki retrieved it.

"Okay, so now what?" she asked Lehava.

The girl pointed to two water columns on either side of her. "Pick one. All paths lead to Flannery in the end, but the long way means you have to fight more trainers. If you pick right, you'll be able to get there in just a few more rooms without battling anyone else."

"Okay, thanks," Lucki replied. She considered, then walked up to the righthand column. She took a deep breath and jumped in.

This time she shot up rather than down.

The room was empty, as were the next two. She stepped into the fourth upward geyser.

Lucki wiped the water out of her eyes to see Keegan and Flannery talking. She'd made it! Keegan turned to her. "Hey Lucki! Good timing, we've just finished talking." He turned back to Flannery for a second. "Thanks for your help, and please call me if you think of anything different, okay?" He waved to both of them before heading off. "Well, I'm off to take the advice, good luck!"

Flannery nodded, looking a bit distracted as she shifted gears. She was a few years younger than Roxanne, probably a few years younger, with hot pink/red hair tied back and flaring out behind her. She was wearing a short black shirt with a red heart in the center, and plain jeans.

"All right!" she said enthusiastically. "You've got two pokemon? Then let's have a two on two battle."

Lucki nodded, adding, "Okay," as she picked Silver's pokeball and tossed it.

Flannery sent out a magcargo. The fire-rock pokemon looked somewhat similar to its unevolved form, but it was darker in color, the red faintly purplish rather than orangey like slugma, and it lacked the feathery plumes above either eye, both of which were more round than oval. On its back was a shell-like collection of hardened rock, the individuals pieces constantly shifting as Lucki watched, with occasional jets of flame bursting from underneath.

"Rock throw!" began Flannery.

The magcargo swung its shell, tossing pieces of itself straight at Silver, who quickly withdrew into her shell to protect herself from the hot stones striking her. When the barrage stopped she popped her head back out, looking no worse for wear.

"You can do this, Silver," Lucki called encouragingly. "Hit it with a water gun!"

Silver sent a quick pellet of water into the magcargo's head, with enough force that its soft body bent under the pressure, but an instant later the magcargo's body popped back into its normal position.

"Flamethrower, magcargo!"

The magcargo opened its mouth, inhaled deeply enough for its chest to billow outward, then exhaled a long orange stream of fire.

"Quick, dodge it!"

Silver threw herself to the side, lying flat against the ground for a few seconds as the fire narrowly missed her.

"Keep using flamethrower," called Flannery. "It can only dodge so long!"

Silver eeped and jumped to her feet just in time to get out of the way of the next burst of flame.

"Use your water gun to fight back!" shouted Lucki. Silver met the next flamethrower with a water gun, temporarily covering the room in a thick cloud of hot steam. She stopped her attack for a moment, only to be hit by the magcargo's flamethrower. She struck back with another water gun, knocking out clumps of the shell and fainting her opponent. Flannery recalled it and threw out her next without hesitation.

The pokemon that appeared was another reddish fire pokemon with a shell on its back and a fiery glow emanating from underneath. But in many ways, it couldn't have been more different. Its body was clearly defined and firm, with four legs holding it above the ground and a smooth head and neck free of random blobs and shiftings, and its shell was made of a single solid stone, rather than a collection of pieces. It snorted, releasing twin plumes of smoke from its nostrils. Despite its color and type, the torkoal before them more closely resembled Silver than the other pokemon they'd fought so far.

"Another water gun, Silver!" Lucki ordered quickly.

Silver blasted at the coal pokemon with a stream of water, which hissed as it struck the furnace area under the shell, releasing more steam.

"Fire spin, Torkoal!"

The torkoal spat out a number of small flames, somewhat like an ember attack. They landed around Silver and then flared up into a circular wall of flames, trapping and burning her.

"Douse the fire with water, Silver," Lucki called quickly.

Silver shot a water gun through the flames in front of her and jumped out through the hole, but with slight burns on her sides. She sent another water gun at the torkoal, resulting in more steam. Under the thick vapor, the torkoal used another body slam, this time colliding and knocking Silver out of the obscuring cloud. A third water gun from Silver hit as well, producing still more steam. The two trainers waited a few moments for their pokemon to become visible.

"Keep going! You can do it, Silver!" Lucki encouraged as the steam began to clear. "Try to get closer so your attack will be stronger!"

Silver nodded. "Okay!" She ran forward.

"Fire blast!" Flannery responded quickly.

"Dodge!"

Silver tried, but was only halfway out of the path of the wide flames. The move struck and Silver flinched, but then retaliated with a closer range water gun. The torkoal shuddered under the blast.

"Flamethrower again!"

Lucki called out, "Dodge!" again, but Silver didn't react in time. She was hit head-on by the orange flames and fainted. Lucki recalled her quickly.

"All right, go Flare!" she shouted, throwing the ball into the center of the room. "Bite!"

Flare appeared and quickly lunged for the other fire type, sinking his teeth into the turtle-like pokemon's long, exposed neck for a moment before it shook free, knocking him away. He landed neatly on his feet, prepared for the next attack.

"Body slam!" Flannery decided. The torkoal lurched at Flare, but he jumped out of the way and the other pokemon hit the ground rather that his body.

_ That torkoal doesn't seem tired at all _ , Lucki thought. It had taken some damage from the attacks, but was still going strong. Maybe she should try a different tactic. "Flare, toxic!"

Flare darted forward again, ducking under the shell to bite down on one of the coal pokemon's legs. He released it a moment later, before the torkoal could drop on top of him in another body slam, but the bite mark remained behind, a livid purple blotch that slowly spread.

Flannery called, "Pin it down with rock slide!"

The torkoal reared up slightly and then stuck the ground heavily with its two front legs. Flare yelped in shock as he was buried under rocks. The torkoal lumbered over as he struggled loose, body slamming him once he crawled out. Flare managed to wiggle free after a moment and pulled back to get distance again, but he was breathing heavily and clearly getting tired.

But the torkoal wasn't much better. It struggled to get back up, one leg giving way under it. After several tries it was on its feet again, but the poison had taken effect. The coal pokemon rocked slightly, and its head drooped, no longer held up proudly.

"Tackle! Finish it off!"

Flare nodded and began to run at the torkoal. It lifted its head, inhaling.

"No!" shouted Flannery. "Endure!"

But the torkoal was already breathing out a flamethrower. Flare ran directly into it without flinching and slammed into the other pokemon. The torkoal remained standing a moment longer, then collapsed.

"Good battle," Flannery told Lucki, recalling her torkoal.


	6. who

Near Lucki's shoulder, Flare groaned unhappily. The fire type was lying in the shallows, the steaming water just covering his legs. From the slow compression of his fluffy fur, it looked like the rest of him was soaking up the water despite his attempt to stay mostly dry.

"Come on Flare, you can do it," Lucki urged. The heat felt like she was being boiled alive, but Flannery had advised it'd be good training for them. The heat would help Flare handle the water, and the water would help Silver acclimate to the heat. "We're all in this together."

Flare sighed once more but stopped groaning.

*

When Lucki didn't think she could stand another second in the hot spring, she recalled her pokemon and headed back into the pokemon center for supper.

_Day Eight_

The next morning, she stopped off at the pokemart to buy some more supplies, then continued east out of Lavaridge.

She looked over the edge. It wasn't too far down to Route 112, but the drop was severe, full of ledges and steep slopes. She was getting tired of this. At least once she did manage to get all the way down, shed be on flat ground for a while.

Lucki started down, picking her way carefully at first. The ground was loose and before long she was slipping and skidding along far faster than she'd intended. Almost immediately she was at the bottom.

She wobbled slightly as she caught her balance, but then grinned triumphantly and started off on Route 112.

The air here was fresh and clean. The same air current that kept Verdanturf clear of ashes was acting here, blowing the dust back toward the mountain.

_Next up, Mauville!_

Of course, she could use more pokemon. She still only had two, and with Silver's weakness to electricity, getting a badge would be hard. Maybe a grass type…

As if on cue, a green, four-legged pokemon ran out of the long grass onto the path, shaking itself. "Trike!" it barked, spying Lucki.

At first glance, it was easy to see how inexperienced trainers often mistook it for a grass type, but anyone making that mistake would be in for a shock. Those same trainers usually experienced a sharp learning curve with the help of their unhappy swellow or wingull. The pokemon before her was a bright grass green, and only the yellow highlights on its face and tail tip gave any hint to its true type. Once you knew, though, it was easy to read other signs, like the sharp points that marked each leg at the joint in a way reminiscent of a jolteon's spikes and the upright tail like a miniature lightning rod. It was an electrike.

"Rike!" it barked again, looking at her challengingly and shocking the air in front of it. "Rike trike!" Lucki reached for Flare's pokeball.

"Go!" she shouted, throwing it forward. "Ember!"

The fireball struck the electric puppy in the face, knocking the smaller pokemon head over heels. He shook himself off and barked defiantly. Small bursts of static began gathering over his body, the sparks jumping around in a cloud of electricity, and with a yell of "Ele!" he sent the mass forward into Flare, who yelped as the spark attack hit.

"Another ember!" called Lucki.

Flare inhaled and sent another fireball at the lightning pokemon, who retaliated by running a few feet closer and sending another shock at the fire type. When Flare tried a third fireball, the electrike managed a sudden burst of speed, propelling it a few feet out of the way in a blur. Then it sat down, giving Flare a cocky look. "Trike!"

"All right Flare, get 'em with tackle!" Lucki decided, irritated by the wild pokemon's smugness.

Flare ran forward and smashed into the smaller pokemon, who yelped in surprise and shocked him in response. Flare jerked, his whole body stiffening for a moment. _Paralyzed, I bet,_ Lucki identified. _Great, now it'll be even easier for that electrike to dodge._ "Flare, ember!"

The first fireball hit, but then the lightning pokemon dodged the second and third. "Rike trike!" it called confidently.

Lucki had an idea. "Flare, sand attack!"

Flare nodded, realizing what she had planned. He spun and kicked sand into the other canine pokemon's face, leaving it temporarily blinded and distracted.

"And now bite!"

While the electrike was pawing the sand from its eyes, Flare jumped it and bit down on its back. It whined and collapsed, and Lucki tossed a pokeball at it. The pokeball rocked a bit, then stopped moving and the button grayed. Her first capture!

Lucki collected the newly filled pokeball, then remembered Flare and quickly pulled out a potion and paralyze heal for his injuries. Once he was healed, she recalled him.

She looked at the pokeball in her hand. _Well, no time like the present for introductions._ She released her new electrike and pulled a translator from her bag. She leaned over and clipped the translator around the electrike's neck and was rewarded with a shock. "Hey!"

"Hey yourself!" barked the electrike back, his voice sounding like that of a seven or eight year old boy." _You're_ the one who caught _me_!"

"That doesn't mean you get to shock me!"

"Does so! I don't wanna be caught! Trainers are jerks!"

Lucki felt insulted. "We are not!"

"Are so!" The electrike stuck his tongue out at her.

"If trainers are jerks, how come you're the one doing the shocking and yelling?" Lucki asked, annoyed.

"Um…because!" The electrike looked pleased with himself.

Lucki sighed. This was going to be frustrating. "Why don't you talk to my pokemon?"

"No way! He beat me up!"

"You challenged me!"

"Yeah, but I thought I'd win. I wouldn't've done it if I knew I was gonna lose," the electrike told her, in a tone of voice that said she was stupid for not thinking of it that way. "Mom 'n Dad said to stay away from trainers because they were tough, but I figured I could do it."

Lucki thought a minute. "Then you want to get stronger?"

The electrike nodded. "Yeah!"

"Then you should want to have a trainer. That way you'll get stronger," Lucki told him. "Like my flareon you fought. We just beat a gym leader together!"

"Hm…" The electrike considered.

"Look, how about you just try it? I'm not mean, and I'll let you go if you decide you don't want to stay on my team, okay?"

"Okay!" chirped the electrike agreeably, his tail wagging.

Lucki let out a sigh of relief. Well, that hurdle was over. She hoped the rest of her pokemon captures would be easier to deal with. "Well, now that that's decided, we should get going," she announced. "I'm heading southeast, to Mauville."

"All right," agreed electrike.

But they had barely gotten anywhere before a trainer showed up heading in the opposite direction. "Oh hey!" he called, approaching. "How about a battle? One on one?"

"Okay," Lucki started to respond when the electrike ran out in front of her and barked at the boy, answering the challenge as well. "And I guess I'll be using him."

The boy nodded and tossed his pokeball. The red and white sphere split to reveal a mostly brown bipedal pokemon about three feet tall, with a single large leaf sticking out of its large round head. Its legs bulged out slightly between its waist and ankles and were a striped light grey, making it look like it wore puffy pants, and its hands were mittenlike, without fingers. Its long nose was also light grey, and there was a sort of mask around its eyes the same color, similar to one of a zigzagoon.

And since nuzleaf was a grass type, her electrike's electric moves wouldn't work that well.

"Fake out and pound!"

The dark type let out a hideous cackle, stretching its mouth to absurd proportions in a grin and jumped to land an inch away from the electrike, kicking it sharply. Startled and cringing, the lightning pokemon didn't make any attempt to do anything, and the nuzleaf smacked it over the head while it was flinching.

"Okay, um-" _Oops_ , Lucki thought, _I forgot to name him._ "Electrike, tackle!"

The electrike looked over his shoulder, giving her a disbelieving look. While he was doing this, the nuzleaf's trainer called out, "Pound!" again, and the distracted puppy was punched in the face. He responded with a weak tackle that knocked the grass/dark type back a few steps.

"Bullet seed!" called the boy. The wily pokemon inhaled and then rapidly spat out a stream of high-velocity seeds into electrike's face and side. The electric type yelped indignantly and sent a burst of static at his opponent, but the nuzleaf ignored the weak shock.

"Quick attack, electrike!" Lucki shouted.

The lightning pokemon visibly hesitated, but then sped into the nuzleaf, the move looking more like a slightly faster tackle.

 _Does he not know that attack?_ Lucki considered. _No, he's used spark, and electrike learn that after quick attack._

The boy responded with, "Nuzleaf, use your quick attack!" His pokemon blurred as it raced forward to slam far more forcefully into her electrike, who shocked it in retaliation.

"Try quick attack again," Lucki suggested. electrike was already charging for another spark attack, and did this instead. The nuzleaf still seemed unfazed. "Quick attack!" The electrike ran none too fast at the nuzleaf in what again, looked like a marginally speeder tackle, and a not especially skilled tackle at that. The wily pokemon kicked him under the chin before the attack could connect. Electrike's head connected with the dark type's nose and he bit down on it.

The other pokemon let out a startled and indignant screech, pounding weakly at him with its spindly arms and not seeming to do damage. _Nuzleaf lose a lot of their power if their nose was pinched_ , Lucki remembered. _That's why they hate people grabbing their nose. And Electrike's doing more than just_ pinching _it._ After a moment more of struggling, the nuzleaf went limp and the other trainer recalled it.

The electrike trotted over to Lucki, stubby tail wagging. "Win!" he shouted cheerfully.

Lucki bit back the urge to groan. As the other trainer left, she asked, "You're not good at physical attacks, are you?"

"No, it's easier to just shock stuff," her new pokemon responded.

"We'll need to work on that. Well, first you need a name."

"Trike!" he barked excitedly, bouncing up and down like a little kid. A tyke.

 _Why not?_ "Tryke." _At least until I think of a better name. Or he starts acting a bit more mature._

"Yay!"

"Okay. Before we go any further, I think we should train a bit," Lucki announced. "The next gym is Wattson's, and he trains the same type as you. That means it's important we get your physical attacks up to snuff." She looked around and noticed a large brown and black boulder a bit off the path. Satisfied that they wouldn't be getting in any other travelers' way by practicing with it, she pointed at it. "See that boulder there?" Tryke nodded. "Practice your quick attack on that."

He nodded again. "Okay!" He ran into it in what still looked very much like a tackle attack and bounced off, then backed up. The second time there was a short burst of speed at the start like she'd seen when he was dodging Flare's fireballs. A couple minutes later and the burst was lasting about a second more.

Lucki sat down. This was going to take a while.

*

_Well, we're as ready as we'll ever be._

Tryke had worked himself to exhaustion, showing a lot more dedication than Silver or Flare, and seemed as good at physical attacks as he'd get. Whether or not that'd be enough to beat another electric-type, Lucki wasn't sure. She'd used one of the technical machines from her bag on him too, but she didn't know if that would be enough.

Lucki was waiting in the Mauville pokecenter for her pokemon to finish being healed. Within a few minutes, Nurse Joy indicated they were ready and Lucki retrieved her three pokeballs.

Before Lucki could head out, another trainer walked up to her. "Hey," greeted the short-haired brunet. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure," Lucki replied. "What is it?"

"Well, I've got a machoke I want to evolve, but he needs to be traded first...Would you mind? I'd trade right back, of course, he should evolve immediately."

"Of course," Lucki told him. "No problem."

"Great! Let's go upstairs then."

The two headed up the escalator to the second story and sought out one of the pokemon center attendants.

"I want to trade my machoke over and back again," he explained quickly, and the woman nodded.

"Okay. Be aware that your pokemon might be a bit hard to handle afterward, though."

"Yeah, I know," the boy replied.

"Well then, follow me," the female attendant told him, leading them into a sideroom with a trading machine in the center of it. "Please place your pokeball on the tray."

Lucki grabbed a random pokeball off her waist, picking Flare's. The boy picked his pokeball. Both of them placed their pokeballs on their respective trays at either end of the machine, and simultaneously the two were sucked up into the twin tubes. Seconds later each reappeared at the opposite end.

"Okay, release the pokemon," said the attendant.

Lucki picked up the pokeball and pressed the button. The brunet did likewise. Out of the corner of her eye she was Flare appear, but she was paying attention to the machoke forming in front of her.

He started glowing white almost the instant she released him, and he let out a small cry. The machoke grew in size, starting at about eye level to over a foot taller, and a second set of arms grew under his first set, which slid slightly upwards on his frame. Once the glow faded and a machamp stood before her, she recalled him again. The boy had already done so with Flare. They replaced the pokeballs on the trays and watched them swap again.

"Thanks," the boy told her happily when the transaction completed.

"Sure, it was no big deal," Lucki responded.

Now for the gym. It wasn't much of a walk from the pokecenter, visible a way further down the street. Lucki trotted down the sidewalk past a storefront that lay between the two buildings. In the window was a stack of TVs all tuned to the PNC, or Pokemon News Channel.

Lucki paused to watch for a few seconds.

"In other news," read the scrolling closed captions under the announcers' torso, "Team Magma's reign of terror in Fallarbor and the surrounding area was cut short by Team Aqua, who retrieved a stolen meteorite and returned it to its owner, Prof. Cosmo, as well as dispersing the members of Team Magma in the area. Prof. Cosmo announced that he would be moving the meteorite into a secure area, halting his research, to prevent this from happening again."

 _So Team Magma_ was _up to no good when I saw them there. It's a good thing Team Aqua decided to stop them._

Lucki continued along the sidewalk to the gym, coming to a large yellow door, which slid aside at her approach.

Inside was a rotund older man, balding but with a thick spike of white hair at the back of his head like Tryke's tail, and a thicker set of an equally white mustache and beard that covered his face. He was wearing a plain brown suit. "Hello, I am Wattson!" he announced boisterously. "Since you have three pokemon, the battle will be three on three!"

_This'll be hard. Flare's the only one not at a disadvantage. I guess it'll depend on how well Tryke pulls off our strategy._

"Go, Flare!"

Wattson nodded in acknowledgment of her choice. "Go, Electrode!"

The nearly four foot pokemon looked physically similar to its far smaller earlier form of voltorb. The red and white colors were switched, though, and it lacked the heavy furrowed brows and large eyes of a voltorb. It was a good foot larger than Flare, and probably weighed almost four times as much as the flame pokemon. _Well, this battle won't be decided by bulk_.

Flare looked somewhat confused. He probably hadn't seen a pokemon like this before.

"Thunderbolt!" Wattson called.

The ball pokemon spun rapidly in place, gathering a static charge. A bolt of jagged lightning arced from the top to come down from above on Flare's back. He yelped at the impact, but didn't appear paralyzed or badly injured.

"Ember, Flare!"

He inhaled deeply, the white mane under his throat glowing, then shot out a large fireball into the electric type. The flames spread over its surface on impact, momentarily enveloping its front half in yellow fire, but then slid off and dissipated.

"Thunder, then!" announced Wattson, seeing the first attack hadn't done much damage.

The electric type spun again, far faster so that it was nothing more than a white and red blur. Thicker lightning bolts shot straight out from the electrode at random intervals, scorching the walls where they hit. The attack seemed completely uncontrolled.

Just as Lucki thought this, one thunderbolt lanced straight for her. Frightened, she jumped back, only to see the electricity take a sharp right turn at the edge of the battle area and head into one of the four metal poles that stood at each corner. So that was what they were for.

Flare was having more trouble. The flame pokemon was running about the field, trying to jump or dodge the electric attacks. He barely managed to get clear of most of them. As Lucki watched, one struck him and he was down for a few seconds, but he got back on his feet in time to avoid the next bolt and continue dodging.

The electrode seemed to be slowing down. _Sooner or later it'll run out of electricity._

"Keep dodging, Flare, it can't keep this up forever!" she called out encouragingly.

Now the ball pokemon was definitely moving slower. Flare was hit by another bolt but didn't stay down. He was still in decent condition. The advantage was Lucki's.

The static around the electrode vanished and after a few more rotations so did the spinning, leaving the ball pokemon wobbling dizzily, its eyes spirals.

"All right Flare, now's our chance! Finish it off with tackle!" Flare launched himself at the electric type.

"Thunderwave!" snapped Wattson quickly.

The white and red pokemon shuddered, releasing a circular wave of yellow electricity in all directions. Flare leapt up to avoid it but the electricity bent upward with him, hitting and sending his body into a sudden spasm. He tumbled ungracefully into the electrode, sending it rolling off the field.

As Flare got back up, Wattson recalled the ball pokemon and released a spiky blue-and-yellow manectric around twice the eevee evolution's height.

_Tryke's evolved form. Well, I can still win this._

"Ember!" Lucki yelled. Flare shot a burst of orange-white flame at the other canine pokemon, knocking it back slightly.

"Spark!" Wattson retaliated. His manectric leapt gracefully forward, static gathering about it, then sent the electricity cloud into the flame pokemon.

"Quick attack!"

Flare shot forward – or started to, only to stumble and collapse as the paralysis hit. Wattson ordered another spark attack and Lucki's pokemon fainted.

 _Drat. I was hoping we'd get a little further before I had to use Tryke. Well, no big deal._ "Go, Tryke!"

The smaller electrike faced his three foot taller evolved form. For a moment Lucki worried Tryke would be intimidated, but that proved untrue as Tryke jumped a step forward in excitement. "You're going down!" he called cockily, his short tail wagging furiously. The manectric snorted, not dignifying the statement with a response.

"All right Tryke, start it off with a quick attack!"

"Use your own quick attack," responded Wattson swiftly.

Tryke blurred forward perfectly…as did the manectric. They collided in the center of the battle area.

 _We've been practicing for this strategy, but the manectric's got more experience. They're evenly matched like this. Luckily I've still got an ace to play._ "Dig!" Lucki called confidently.

"Bite, quick!" shouted Wattson as Tryke's fast front paws rapidly tore through the hard floor to burrow into the ground. The manectric lunged, its teeth snapping shut inches from the tip of Tryke's tail as he vanished below.

The manectric backed up, looking about itself uncertainly. Lucki thought of how she and Silver had struggled against the move. Now the tables were turned.

As she thought that, Tryke shot up underneath the manectric, sending it flying. "Keep it up!" Lucki shouted, and, stubby tail wagging, Tryke nodded and jumped back into the hole as the manectric was still struggling back up.

"Be ready!" Wattson called.

Tryke appeared again, again knocking the evolved pokemon back. This time the electric type recovered more quickly and jumped forward to sink its teeth into his back. Tryke let out a startled yelp and began digging to escape, the dust knocked up flying into the other pokemon's face in an improvised version of sand attack. The manectric released him and backed up a step, pawing at its face to clear its eyes.

By that point, Tryke had vanished.

Panting from exhaustion, the manectric looked about once again, trotting from side to side. Tryke exploded from the ground again, and this time the evolved pokemon stayed down. Tryke grinned from ear to ear. "Told you!" he shouted as the manectric was recalled.

It wasn't over yet, though. Wattson picked his third pokeball thoughtfully, then threw it out. A light orange pokemon with grey-brown paws and a white belly appeared, standing on its hind legs. Its cheek pouches were yellow, rather than the red of its preceding evolutions, the color of a pikachu's fur. It dropped to all fours, its curved frilly ears waving slightly before standing up straight, a sign it was fully charged. The inner side of its ears was a bright yellow, and the back the same grey-brown of its paws. Round black eyes sized up the smaller electrike before it, and its smaller black nose twitched. Behind it waved a long, thin black tail ending in a jagged yellow lightning-bolt shape.

"Seismic toss!" called Wattson immediately. Tryke, not knowing the move, didn't react quickly enough and the raichu grabbed him in its short arms and slammed him powerfully into the ground. Angry, he bit the electric mouse's tail, only to jerk as it responded with an attempt to electrocute him. Tryke's jaws released and he backed up. The shock wouldn't have done much damage, but it'd hurt.

"No, use dig again!" Lucki called.

"Oh, right!" Tryke burrowed down. The raichu sent a thundershock after him, prompting a yelp followed by the sound of faster digging. Subsequent shocks failed to get a response, vanishing into the ground even as the raichu grew more and more annoyed, sending out growingly stronger attacks.

"Just wait," Wattson told it after a moment. The raichu nodded, its expression determined.

Tryke surged up from below, knocking it up into the air.

"Iron tail!"

The raichu flipped in midair, smashing Tryke in the face with a suddenly metallic tail, sending the electric type tumbling. He rolled to his feet and dashed into a nearby hole. The mouse glared after him, standing on its hind legs, and send out a tentative shock, but there was no response. It returned to all fours, ears waving in the air. Suddenly it started to run sideways as Tryke shot out of the ground again, so the attack half missed.

"Thunderwave!" shouted Wattson.

Before Tryke could make a break for the hole, the raichu released a more controlled version of the electrode's earlier attack straight into the unevolved pokemon, paralyzing him, then followed up with a slam attack that sent him rolling over the ground.

 _I don't think he'll be getting back up…_ For a moment it seemed she was right. But then, to her surprise, Tryke began to struggle to his feet. Then he began to glow. Amazed, Lucki watched his short, stubby legs elongate, the crest in the back of his head turn upward, and his body grow until he was the same size as the manectric he'd just fought.

"Alright Tryke, you evolved!" Lucki called happily. "Quick attack!"

The larger manectric nodded, bolting forward to smash into the now smaller raichu. It tumbled over the ground like he had a moment before, but to Lucki's disappointment it flipped back to its feet as Wattson called "Iron tail and seismic toss!" The raichu's tail shone as it spun around to smack Tryke into the air, then leapt up after him, grabbing the stunned electric type and slamming him back into the ground. Tryke stumbled up a moment, only to collapse again.

"You did a good job Tryke, return," Lucki told him as she recalled him to his pokeball. She picked Silver's white pokeball from her belt.

The raichu before her still looked strong, but it was panting slightly, both from the hits and the exertion of the moves it'd used. Lucki didn't know if Silver would be able to beat it. This would be tough. "Go, Silver!"

Both the raichu and its trainer seemed somewhat surprised. Quickly Lucki called, "Bubble, Silver, it's too fast!"

Silver inhaled sharply, her expression one of concentration as she mixed the air with a low powered water gun to produce the froth of bubbles. The mixture hit the electric type, covering it. The mouse pokemon began struggling its way out, movements hampered by the water.

"Tail whip it when it gets its head out," Lucki advised.

Silver nodded, approaching carefully.

"It's not going to be that easy. Raichu, thunder!"

The mound of bubbles shuddered, and an instant later lightning bolts arced in all directions. One struck Silver in the chest, sending the petite turtle to the ground with an "oomph!"

While Silver was stunned, the raichu returned to pushing the bubbles off. After a moment it managed to get clear of the main bunch, although the froth was still stuck to its body and soaking its fur, slowing it. The electric type loped on all fours toward Silver, who smacked it with her tail as it approached.

"Great, now water gun!"

While the raichu was startled, Silver blasted it away with a powerful torrent of water. When the attack ended, the raichu was sodden, but Lucki realized the last of the bubble attack had been cleared. Glaring at the water type, the mouse's cheeks sparked. Its tail waved menacingly over its head. A second later, a powerful thunderbolt lanced from it to Silver.

For several seconds, the tiny turtle didn't get up. Lucki held her breath. Then Silver began pushing herself back up with her arms, moving slowly. But when she did, Lucki could see it was no use. The silver squirtle was almost beaten. She wouldn't be able to take another thunderbolt attack. Withdraw wouldn't do anything against an electric move, she didn't know protect… "Try to dodge, Silver!" Lucki called, seeing that the raichu was charging for another thunderbolt. Silver stared at the approaching attack instead, looking stunned. Her body suddenly gained a metallic sheen slightly resembling the raichu's iron tail move just before it hit. Silver staggered back as a mirror image of the attack shot explosively at the raichu. It collapsed, unconscious, the floor around it scorched. Looking surprised, Wattson recalled it.

"Silver! Do you know what you just did?" Lucki asked, shocked, as she ran to the small pokemon.

Silver looked somewhat dazed. "Something?"

"That was mirror coat!"

"Oh." Silver sounded less impressed than Lucki. "Okay. Is that important? I'll remember it."

Wattson headed over. "Congratulations, that was a good battle." He handed Lucki the Dynamo Badge, and she headed out.

Back at the pokecenter, Lucki healed her pokemon. When Nurse Joy returned them, she remembered Tryke. She released him.

"Hey!" he greeted when he appeared. "I evolved. And," he added confidently, "Next time there's a battle like that, I'll beat both. Count on it!"

Lucki laughed. "Glad to see you're still so gung-ho, Tryke. And speaking of that, I guess you need a new name now…"


	7. cried

"I guess you need a new name now…" Lucki thought for a moment. "How about Raiden?"

"Sure!"

_ Day Seven _

The next morning, Lucki headed out of the pokecenter.

_ Time to head north. _ Lucki looked down the path before her.

It was cloudy, even misty, although warm enough to be not so bad. The plants by either side of the path certainly seemed to like it. The tall grass was twice or three times the size she normally saw, and even the individual grass blades were mammoth. Traveling through that would be hard.  _ It must be because of how wet it is here. _

Lucki remembered that some plant pokemon also lived in the area. Oddish and gloom did well there, just like in many other parts of Hoenn, as did rare pokemon like roselia, who shared their grass/poison type but not their range, being restricted to this route and its unusual climate. Tropius too, she remembered after a bit more thought. It was also the only place the even rarer water type feebas could be found.

The grass rustled and a linoone shot out in a straight line, reminding Lucki they inhabited the area too. It was gone a moment later into the vegetation on the other side of the path, the wind disguising the swaying of the grass tops as it headed along.

She wondered if she should try to catch something to add to her team. She already had Silver, so she wasn't interested in trying her luck at finding a feebas. A roselia might be nice, she liked them and she'd been considering getting a grass type when Tryke – well, Raiden now – had shown up. She thought about the different types she'd be fighting. She'd learned it in school, but she always forgot one when she tried listing them.  _ Water, fire, grass…steel, dark, psychic, poison, electric, ground, ice, flying, fighting, ghost…dragon, bug, rock…there's one left. _

While Lucki was pondering, she almost ran into a trainer heading in the opposite direction. The boy was about an inch shorter than her, and really skinny. He had white hair with green highlights and was wearing an orange vest over a blue long-sleeved shirt and cream colored cargos, as well as brown sandals.

"Oh, sorry," they both chorused at the same time. Lucki laughed.

"Hey, let's have a battle," Lucki suggested. "I'm Lucki."

"I'm Justin. I only have one, so it'll have to be a one on one fight."

Lucki nodded. "Sure."

Justin picked his one pokeball from his belt. Lucki grabbed the first sphere on her own belt, Silver's white school pokeball. The two trainers threw each at the same time.

Silver's pokeball popped open, but Lucki wasn't watching. Instead she was staring at the gigantic white light solidifying before her.

_ Normal types. I was forgetting normal types. _ Lucki didn't think she'd make that mistake again as she watched the snorlax rumble to its feet. It wasn't as colossal as some of the really high level ones got, but no snorlax was anything short of imposing.

_ Well, I've already picked my pokemon. _ "Water gun, Silver!" Not giving the huge pokemon a chance at the first move, Silver blasted it in the belly with a powerful jet of water, the force depressing its stomach like poked dough, and the strike enough to knock it off balance so that it sat back down heavily with a rumble as it struck the ground.

"Get up and use body slam!" he called.

"Silver, get ready to dodge!" she responded as the sleepy pokemon rolled ponderously to its feet, the fat that padded its whole giant body jiggling. Then, with surprising speed and a sort of grace, it launched itself into the air. Silver stared at it in shock for a moment, then recovered and dove to the side, narrowly getting clear of its shadow before it hit, the force enough to make her bounce upward herself a bit. "Quick! Use another water gun!"

Silver inhaled deeply, then shot the attack into the snorlax's side with all the force she could muster. She didn't shift it this time, but judging by the way its side bent in under the force and the unhappy if mostly annoyed groan of the snorlax, it was doing damage. It rocked backwards onto its feet again, then without warning launched itself atop the tiny turtle, crushing Silver under its stomach. When it pulled off, Lucki saw Silver had withdrawn into her shell. She popped out almost in the same moment and scurried away before the snorlax could try that again.

"Try to stay back, and keep using water gun," Lucki decided. That seemed the best strategy. Silver backed further up and shot out a quick watergun.

"Another body slam!" the other trainer called. Lucki wondered if he was hoping his pokemon would manage to paralyze Silver.

But the attack fell short, Silver nimbly dodging and hitting the normal type with water gun while it was down.

"Try again!"

Silver dodged again. "Great, keep it up!" Lucki encouraged.

Abruptly Justin shouted, "Tackle!"

Lucki hadn't been expecting something like that. The snorlax again moved more quickly than it looked like it should be able to, trampling across the ground to run into Silver. The petite water type went flying several feet. But she got up again easily. The same padding that protected the large pokemon from damage had softened its attack. She fired back another water gun.

The two pokemon continued trading attacks. The snorlax's tackles were doing more damage than Silver's water gun attacks, but she was dodging many of them.

Justin decided it was time to change tactics. "Use belly drum!" The snorlax cut off another tackling charge and began pounding its stomach with both arms, hard enough to be clear and loud to Lucki. And it really was pounding, Lucki knew, she remembered learning about this move. A healthy snorlax would cut that health in half using the move. Since this one was injured, that meant it would be somewhere below that point. Lucki wasn't sure how far below, but she was sure Silver had done a good deal of damage.  _ Of course, its attacks will be several times stronger now. _

"Now headbutt!"

The snorlax lowered its head and barreled straight down on Silver. She dodged the move somewhat more easily than the tackles, and the snorlax struck a tree behind her. Lucki winced as she saw the tree split lengthwise. Silver stared, looking surprised.

"Silver, make sure you stay out of its way," Lucki told her firmly. Silver nodded strongly.

"Keep going, snorlax," called the boy.

The normal type lowered its head and charged again. Silver narrowly avoided being hit, but had no time to attack back before the other pokemon turned and barreled toward her yet again. The third time it struck a large boulder, hard enough to momentarily stun it. "Quick Silver, water gun!"

Silver didn't hesitate, blasting at her opponent as it struggled up. She had to cut off her attack shortly after to roll out of the way of another headbutt, the snorlax almost hitting her. Still, Lucki thought they were doing well. The snorlax couldn't take much more of their attacks.  _ One or two more good hits… _

"Get it with tackle!"

"Eep!" Silver tried to dodge, but the snorlax was more maneuverable with this attack, and swerved as well. She was sent flying again, far more forcibly. She took a moment to get up when she landed, looking unsteady.

_ She's not going to be able to dodge… _ "Silver, just hit it with another water gun, quick!"

Silver blasted the snorlax with another torrent, knocking it onto its back. It wobbled like it was about to get up. Lucki tensed…but then it relaxed again, going unconscious.

"All right!" Lucki yelled, rushing over to Silver. "We won!" The small squirtle nodded, looking proud. Lucki took out a potion from her bag and began spraying it over Silver's injuries, then looked to her opponent. "Great battle. Your snorlax is really strong."

He nodded. "Thanks. Your squirtle's well trained too." Justin recalled his pokemon and Lucki continued on her way.

She passed a clump of berry plants but didn't stop. They were still growing and hadn't even sprouted flowers yet, let alone the useful berries. A little way further was a pile of leafy growth, almost a hut. Kids in some places used them as hideouts. Lucki wondered if there might be someone hiding inside like that ninja-wannabe kid she'd seen near Fallarbor, but decided it was unlikely. This area was too wet to make a good secret base.

As if thinking about it caused it, it began to lightly rain. Lucki groaned in annoyance, shaking her head as drops landed, but after a moment ignored it. It was too warm to be a real bother.

And the rain was dispelling some of the mist, making it easier to see. She had a better view of a narrow, white bridge across the Rain River. They weren't usable to her – they were set up for people with bikes to fool around with.  _ Well, maybe I could use them…if I didn't mind the fact I'd be more likely to fall in than make it to the other side. _ The main bridges across were further along. They were set up on bedrock plateaus, as unlike the light white bridges, they needed more support than muddy ground to be secure. She could see the steps of the first such plateau up ahead.

But before she could start climbing, an oddish hopped into her path. "Odd…" it told her, shaking the green leaves atop its round blue body and releasing a purple powder. The cloud settled down over it, but as it was immune to poison attacks, this didn't matter.

_ Well, if it wants a battle… _ "Go, Flare," Lucki announced.

The weed pokemon hopped into the air at this, leaves trembling. This time it sent the spores toward the fire type.

_ Blue – sleep powder. _ "Flare, burn it away with an ember!"

Flare sent out a short flash of flame, searing a wide path through the blue dust. The remnants on either side dissipated in the light rain and wind.

"Great! Now get the oddish itself with another ember!"

Flare inhaled again for another burst of flame, more deeply this time. The fire struck the grass type, but barely flashed against it rather than engulfing it.

"Try again!" called Lucki quickly, but the oddish attacked first, running across the wet dirt path on its large round feet and plowing into the flame pokemon, the force sending him skidding backward in the mud, his feet slipping under him so that he fell on his side with a splash.

"Quick, ember!" shouted Lucki.

"Right!" Flare shouted back, jumping to his feet. He sent another burst of energy into the oddish. It cringed, but again the flame didn't last long enough. It shook itself, sending out another powder attack. Flare barely managed another ember before it reached him, burning it away with bare seconds to spare.

"Come on Flare, you've got to manage a stronger flame!"

Flare nodded. He inhaled deeply, then spat out the next burst. It flared brightly as it hit the oddish, but like all the rest faded far too fast. Then Flare opened his mouth again and flamed the oddish, the fire issuing forth continuing from his jaws for the space of several seconds. Slightly blackened, the weed pokemon glared at him before running forward for another physical attack. Flare took it stoically, then unleashed a white flamethrower.

"All right Flare!" shouted Lucki as the oddish wobbled on its feet and sat down in a near faint. "We won!"

Flare nodded again, shaking himself.

"Oh – is the rain a problem?"

He stopped. "No, my fur was just pushed the wrong way from the mud. You won at the gym, then. Tryke do well?"

"Oh, yeah. Tryke – well, actually, he evolved fighting the third pokemon, so I figured he needed a new name. It's Raiden, what do you think?"

The flareon looked unimpressed. "Thought of a better name?"

"What, you don't like it?"

He grinned suddenly. "No, I was just joking."

Lucki laughed and recalled him. She continued along, crossing one of the large wooden bridges. Before long the rain let up and shortly after the clouds disappeared. The sun appeared, drying everything off. Lucki appreciated this, as the road ahead had been taken over by the giant grass, and pushing her way through that was slow and hard enough without adding water to the mix.

She reached another, larger berry patch, this time fruiting, and stopped a while to collect the mix of pomeg, sitrus and hondew berries. Sitrus were especially healthy berries for pokemon, while pomeg and hondew were good snacks.

All too suddenly it began to grow darker. She'd been hoping to make it to Fortree before night, but it was a lot slower going than she'd expected. She hadn't even reached the second bridge yet. She stopped and set up camp.

_ Day Six _

Lucki woke up the next morning to warm golden sunlight on her face. Yawning, she sat up and stretched, then climbed out of her sleeping bag. She reached for the backpack nearby and opened it to get out her clothing for the day.

And froze.

Her pokeballs were gone.


	8. a river

Lucki's first thought was a linoone stole it. The rushing pokemon could be even more troublesome than their pre-evolved forms of zigzagoon. But there was no reason why a linoone would open her bag and run off with just her pokeballs. They'd just make off with the whole bag.

_ Pokemon thieves. _

Lucki shuddered. To think someone like  _ that _ had come in the night while she was sleeping, without her knowing anything...

But who would do something like that? Team Magma?

Those creeps would definitely do something like that. They hadn't thought about right and wrong when they tried to steal those blueprints from Devon, why would they this time?

They wouldn't get away with this. She'd...

...what? She was out here without her pokemon. She could try to get to Mauville or Fortree, but that would take hours, and by then the thieves could be gone. She was on her own. Completely.

Lucki smiled suddenly.  _ I bet the last thing they're expecting is for me to cause them trouble... _

*

_ There! _ Lucki thought in triumph, spying figures moving a little way below her. She was lying on her stomach on the ground, concealed by the heavy vegetation that covered the edge of the small cliff she was on, a thick mixture of trees, bushes and grass. And even if she could have been seen, none of the figures seemed to be paying any attention to the area above them.

The figures below were on the large main path, by a white pickup truck.  _ I knew it! _ Two of them, both in the distinctive Team Magma outfits – two red cloth bands around either arm, gray-black gloves, gray pants with a red belt and more of the red bands around their ankles above their gray shoes. And of course the weird red hood with black horns on either side, like they were pretending to be some sort of demon.

It looked like they were loading bags into the back of the truck. Or one of them, anyway, a boy who looked like he was thirteen who was turned toward the direction Lucki was, although there was no chance he'd see her, hiding in the bushes and up so high. He didn't seem like he was paying any attention, anyway. The other boy was turned away, head completely hidden by the red hood. He looked taller and older, maybe by a year or two, and probably keeping watch. The younger boy slung a brown sack into the back of the truck. The tie on the top loosened and a handful of pokeballs rolled out. One bumped against a rubber tire and popped open. Flare appeared. He looked around.

"Hey boy," said one of the Team Magma members, walking over and patting him on the head before picking up the open pokeball and recalling him. "It's a shame we can't keep them, huh?" he commented to the older boy, who was gathering fallen pokeballs. "That one looked friendly."

_ Why didn't Flare do anything? _

"Don't kid around. That was close," responded the older boy. "We're lucky that the flareon was so laid back." His voice sounded familiar. Maybe he was the same one Lucki had defeated before.

"Yeah, I'll be more careful. Still, it's a shame. I always wanted a flareon. I'd call him Helios. He looked like a Helios."

"He looked like he's not yours. C'mon, focus."

Up on the cliff, Lucki fumed.  _ I don't believe it! Why'd Flare just stand around like that? _ She sighed.  _ I guess there's no helping it. But now that I've found them, what do I do? _

She hadn't seen any other trainers around, and guessed that even if she had run into anybody, odds were they'd have been pokemonless too. She needed to get to the truck and grab the bags, but getting there without the help of a pokemon would be tough and getting away again even tougher. And she'd need to hurry, no telling when they'd take off.

Lucki realized she hadn't seen any pokemon for a while. Maybe they stayed clear of people without pokeballs on display, figuring there wasn't a chance of battles?

Just as she was thinking that, another hoodie-wearing member showed up, carrying a smaller bag.

"How'd it go?" called one of the first two. His voice was definitely familiar, Lucki was sure of it.

"I think I got all of them – a few of them scattered after the first attack, but they stuck around for a fight, and there were only a few left around to flee after that. I think I mopped all those guys up. And the plan worked great – no interference at all." He flashed a thumb's up at the other two.

At that moment an arc of wind smashed through the trees on the side of the road into the new member, knocking him to the side and the bag off his shoulders. It hit the ground and pokeballs scattered everywhere. A tropius flew out, headed for the pokeballs, only to be tackled to the side by a mightyena one of them had let out in the confusion.

The tropius attempted another gust, but the dark type shrugged it off, running in for a bite attack. The tropius shook itself free but rather than attack again attempted to fly off. It looked unsteady, and Lucki could see its wings were torn. It narrowly dodged the mightyena's next attack and flew away – right toward Lucki's hiding place. She scrambled back.

The grass type came crashing through the trees to come to a halt almost at Lucki's feet. Up close, she could see it – he - was in bad shape, with red scratches and scrapes all over his tan body, and his green leaflike wings looked even worse. Over his exhausted pants Lucki could hear the shouts of the three Team Magma members giving chase.

"Hey!" she shouted.

The tropius slowly turned his long neck to regard her.

"You've got to get moving, they're going to get you!"

The Tropius let out a low cry. He attempted to stand, but one foreleg crumpled under him.

"Okay okay wait!" Lucki rummaged through her bag, pulling out the Sitrus berries. It was a good thing she'd thought to collect them earlier. "Here, eat these, quick!" she told it, holding them out.

The tropius took them. He chewed the berries as Lucki frantically searched her bag, pulling out a super potion. She sprayed it on the tropius' injured leg. "Come on come on!" she hissed, watching the injuries fade. The tropius let out another deep cry. He tested his leg.

"Can you move now?" she asked right as the first Team Magma member appeared.

"Go!" he shouted, throwing out a pokeball.

Quickly, the tropius dipped his neck and grabbed Lucki by the back of her shirt. Then, wings humming, they rose into the air, dodging an energy ripple as they took off.

*

Lucki wasn't sure how long they flew. It couldn't have been that long, especially not with the tropius in the condition he was in, but when you're dangling in the air by the back of your shirt with criminals on your tail and a decidedly unsteady pilot, everything seems to take longer.

The tropius dipped sharply and landed a bit roughly in another section of the forest, a good way from where she started, setting her down. Lucki stumbled slightly as she caught her footing and took a few deep breaths.

"Thanks," she told him, turning. "Are you okay?"

The tropius was looking worse, neck drooping and his wings completely shredded by the landing. Still, he nodded gravely in response to her question.

"So, I guess Team Magma stole all your friends, right?"

He nodded again.

"They stole my pokemon too," Lucki replied, getting another potion from her backpack and starting to spray it over his injuries. "I was just thinking of doing something like you did. So, wanna team up? Get back at those jerks?"

Lucki was expecting something enthusiastic, but the tropius just nodded a third slow time, looking determined. "Ius."

*

"All right," Lucki muttered, watching the path and single Team Magma member approaching, bag slung over one shoulder. "You ready?"

By her side came the quiet agreement of, "Ropi."

"Good. I'm going then." Lucki stood, brushing dirt off her knees, and jumped into the path.

"Hey!" she shouted boldly at the startled Team Magma agent. "What do you think you're doing?"

He looked at her in surprise. Then the gust attack hit, knocking him over and making him drop his burden. Lucki ran forward, snagging the bag of pokeballs off the ground and taking off as he was getting up. He started to chase, only to swear as he was cut off by a sudden flurry of razor-sharp leaves launched by Tropius. Lucki could just imagine his perplexed look as he tried to decide to chase her, going one way, or deal with the attack coming from the other side of the road. She didn't wait for him to figure it out.

She ran for a few minutes before she was certain she was safe, then opened the bag. It was filled with ultraballs.  _ Probably stolen too. _ She opened them, releasing a multitude of roselia as well as a pair of linoone. No tropius, but it was a start and these didn't deserve to belong to criminals any more than the tropius' herd did.

_ I wonder why they're catching all these guys. To sell, I guess _ .

The tropius came a few minutes later. He was a lot better at finding her than she was at finding him. He looked okay, barring his wings. They were yellowing and wilting despite the super potion she'd sprayed on them, but he seemed not to mind. It was a good thing that Team Magma hadn't given serious chase though, as it was obvious there was no way he'd be able to pull off another flying escape.

Of course, she wasn't their goal. Their goal was whatever they were doing with the stolen pokemon. She was just getting in the way of that.  _ And doing a good job of it, _ she thought spitefully as she started back toward the path. She'd managed to stop one of the Team Magma poachers. They'd have to catch all those pokemon again. And they couldn't stay here forever. Sooner or later one of the other trainers would get to a city and report this. Hadn't Team Magma gotten kicked off Mt. Chimney within a few hours of their taking that meteorite?

She started to head back to the path. "Time to find another target."

*

Two bags later Lucki found herself running for her life. Apparently they'd figured out what she was up to, and this time, when she ran out, another Team Magma jerk had been waiting. She'd barely even seen him before he'd thrown a pokeball out and she'd taken off before things could get worse.

She heard an order shouted and dropped flat as the psychic attack rolled over her, smashing through the trees and bushes just above her. One of the last Team Magma pokemon had tried something similar, but it hadn't been half so destructive. The plants and air were so wet that fire attacks hadn't had effects like that.

The instant the attack ended she scrambled back up and kept running.  _ I'm not your goal, remember! _ she thought angrily.  _ Your boss didn't declare today's mission Make Lucki's Life Suck! So quit chasing me already! _

Another attack didn't come crashing down on her, so she slowed and risked a glance behind her. She didn't see anything – well, besides a bunch of destroyed plants – or hear another attack called.

She could hear water up just ahead. Figuring she was lost now, she headed forward, stepping out of the forest onto a narrow beach by the Rain River.

Lucki took a deep breath and looked around, trying to get her bearings. She turned back to the forest, holding one hand above her eyes to shade them as much from the light rain as the noon sun.

At which moment a grumpig bounded out of the forest, psychic energy gathering in its hands.

_ Not another one! _ Lucki thought.  _ Or maybe – was that what Team Magma was doing there on Jagged Path, when I saw the one? Catching pokemon, like they are here? _ she realized.  _ And maybe I should be running right now rather than thinking about all this. _

But then something huge leaped out of the water. Lucki turned in time to see a gigantic sharpedo arced in the air, a hyper beam gathering between its massive jaws for a second before shooting out and sending the grumpig crashing back into the forest.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked a boy in a black and white striped short sleeved shirt and blue pants. He was wearing a bandanna tied over his head and had dark gray gloves on his hands.  _ Team Aqua _ . "They stole your pokemon, right?"

"Yeah – What are you guys doing here?" she demanded.

"Hey, hey!" the boy protested, putting his hands up defensively. "We're the good guys."

"That doesn't answer my question," Lucki replied suspiciously.

His hands still in the air, the Team Aqua boy responded, "We heard Team Magma was getting involved in something again over here, and figured we should do something about it." He paused a second to look her over. "From how you look, it's probably a good thing we did."

Lucki looked down at herself. Her clothing was dirty and mud-splattered, her shirt and skirt ripped at the edges, and she had small red scratches on her arms and legs from the bushes she'd been pushing through. "Okay, point. But what are you guys planning?"

"We're just here to stop them. If you have any ideas that could help, or could just fill me in a little...You've been out here a while, right?"

Lucki nodded. "They stole everyone's pokemon, I think, and now they're poaching. I think they might've robbed a store beforehand, because they're using ultraballs. They had a truck up that way," she told him pointing northwest, "on the main path."

"Any others?"

"I didn't see any, and all of the Team Magma guys I saw were heading that way. I don't know how much longer they'll be staying – I've been jumping lone ones and grabbing the pokeballs, but they could always decide to leave without a full load."

"That's good. They're usually pretty fast about this, so they get out before we can get there. You're probably the reason they were so delayed. They're just using a truck, though? On the main road?"

Lucki nodded.

"We've cut them off then, no problem." He grinned. "Actually you're kind of lucky. We're the stronger group. If the tables were turned and  _ we _ were the bad guys, well, that'd be pretty bad."

"And you're so humble, too," Lucki retorted sarcastically.

He laughed. "Okay, we'll get moving." He walked over to the edge of the river, where his sharpedo was waiting, and jumped onto its back. "Just head to where that truck was. By the time you there, we'll have your pokemon safe, no problem." He waved and the sharpedo took off upstream.

She headed back into the forest, starting north. She came across the tropius before long, and cringed. His wings were just gone, probably torn off on the way, leaving just four vibrant green bumps on his back where they had been attached.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lucki asked worriedly.

The tropius nodded slowly.

"But your wings...are you sure?"

The tropius nodded again. "Pius." He didn't seem to be in any pain.

"Well, okay," she responded dubiously. "If you're sure."

The tropius just nodded a third time.

"Well, I met up with Team Aqua. Seems they're here to stop Team Magma too. The one I met up with was really confident. I guess we'll find out if he's right or not, because he said by the time I got there, they'd have won." She grinned. "I guess we should get going and find out, huh?"

They continued northward for several minutes. Soon, they were almost there.

"Trop!" called a voice, and Lucki turned to see a pair of tropius bound out of the trees toward them. The two were smaller than the one who'd been traveling with her, and both their wings were undamaged.

"Trop!" replied Tropius.

"I guess they really did it," Lucki remarked. She sped up to go around the bend of the path, where the truck had been.

It was gone, but there was a different Team Aqua member waiting who grinned and waved when he saw her. "Hey, you're the girl who got attacked by some psy-type earlier?"

"Um, yeah."

"I've got a message to pass on: Sorry, but the Officer Jenny said she was taking all the trainer's pokemon back to the pokecenter for redistribution. So, you'll have to pick them up there." He shrugged. "But no worries, we got everything. Although they got away...well, they've always excelled at high-tailing it afterwards. Have to be good at something, right?" He grinned.

Lucki smiled back. "Yeah."

"Well, that's all I had to pass on. Bye!" He headed off.

Lucki sighed.  _ I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer to get my pokemon back. No big deal, though, I'll be in Fortree soon. _

She turned to see the tropius. "Well, we did it," she told the grass type, who nodded in response. "Um, I was wondering, now that that's done, would you like to come with me, as one of my pokemon?"

The tropius nodded again.

"All right!" Lucki yelled.


	9. and

"Um, my tropius," Lucki explained as she handed over the pokeball, "he was wild and his wings were really ripped up and -"

Nurse Joy held up one hand. "Normal, don't worry. Tropius normally shed and regrow their wings at intervals, and they drop them when damaged as well. That's why they can have such flimsy wings, because they're easy to regrow. They don't even have nerve endings in them."

"Oh, that's a relief."

"You'll have to wait a short while between wilting and regrowing its wings before it's able to fly or use moves that require its wings, but it's not more than an occasional inconvenience. Just leave it out for a bit so it can finish sprouting its leaves." She handed back three different pokeballs. "Here are your other pokemon. You didn't have any others, right?"

"Right," Lucki replied. "Just a squirtle, flareon and manectric."

Nurse Joy smiled. "Good, that's what's here. So far we haven't had any problems with missing pokemon, but it never hurts to ask."

"Yeah." Lucki headed to sit on a couch for a few minutes while her tropius healed, with other trainers watching TV.

"Rumor has it," the news anchorman stated, "that after their just-foiled attack on trainers on Route 119, Team Magma is planning something in the Mt. Chimney area, with unsubstantiated reports coming in of Team Magma member sightings. Team Aqua, heroes of the past two attacks, offered to check out the area, but were rebuffed by residents. Flannery of the Lavaridge Gym explained." The image switched to Flannery standing outside her gym with a reporter. "We don't believe there's a problem right now, and I think having Team Aqua here would invite Team Magma to show up and cause more trouble. We'd like to stay out of both team's affairs."

"Lucki," called Nurse Joy. "Your tropius has been healed."

"Thanks," Lucki told her, taking the pokeball and heading out.

Team Magma had definitely made for a major delay, but things were looking up now, Lucki decided. She had her fourth pokemon, a grass-flying type who would help cover her team's weaknesses, and she was in Fortree ready to get her fourth badge.

If she could find the gym, of course. Fortree was perhaps the weirdest town in all of the three regions. Rather than clearing out a patch of forest and building homes there, the people of Fortree had chosen to build their homes in the trees themselves, carving out sections for their houses, building platforms for porches, and stringing bridges between in place of streets. And because the residents spent so much time above ground, the way below was overgrown with vegetation and impassable. Sections were kept clear for human use, but they could only be reached at certain points by climbing about in the trees.

Lucki headed for the nearest ladder and climbed up onto the large wooden platform. She looked around, spying the gym. There was a ladder down to it several trees away. She stepped off the platform onto the suspended bridge, holding onto the rope railing as she stepped from wooden slat to wooden slat, the whole thing swaying as she moved. Native residents of the town might be willing to run casually about, but she was going to walk carefully. It was a good thing she wasn't especially scared of heights, or this would be impossible.

And there was the gym! Lucki climbed down the rope ladder and started toward it at a fast jog, only to run into something, knocking her backward to land on her butt. She got back up and stuck a hand out into the area, only to find the air had returned to its normal intangible state.

_ Okay...that was weird _ . There was something about it that seemed a little familiar though. She thought she'd learned about a pokemon that did something like this in school, although she couldn't remember which.

She walked more slowly to the gym, only to find the door locked. A notice on the door explained the gym was closed to deal with a kecleon infestation and should be open again in a day or so.

_ Kecleon! That's right, they can become invisible by blending perfectly into their surroundings. Sometimes they migrate into a town and cause trouble. _ Lucki remembered now, it had been mentioned in a lesson about the different kinds of problems caused by wild pokemon.

Well, there was no chance of getting her fourth badge today.  _ Oh well. I could use the chance to chance to train, and maybe I'll be able to get a fifth pokemon. _ Lucki turned to head back to the ladder, only to slam into not-so-thin air again. This time she distinctly heard a soft squeak.

"I can see how this could get annoying," Lucki muttered. She picked up a stone from the ground and threw it, hard, in the direction of the ladder. It thunked against something standing right in front of the ladder. A kecleon's green head became visible about two feet off the ground, its two eyes rotating to focus on her for a second, then it scampered to the right, becoming invisible again.

Lucki hurried toward the ladder before another one could get in the way, then continued to the right. She'd spent more than enough time on Route 119. She'd go to Route 120 instead of heading back there.

She headed east. It was late afternoon, so she'd only have a few hours before she should go back to the pokecenter for the night.

The thick, exceptionally grass by the side of the road was similar to that she'd spent time struggling through on Route 119, although the air here was chillier and there was a dry wind blowing rather than humid, still air.

_ I should probably train with Saurius a bit, _ Lucki thought. She would need to have an idea of the tropius' in-battle ability before trying to beat Winona. She released the grass/flying type. He needed to spend an hour or so out to give his wings time to unfurl. The green bumps on his shoulders had grown into large protrusions, but they were still balled up tightly.

She headed off the main path to explore, avoiding the thickest clumps of grass where walking was hardest.

Lucki headed through the trees for a bit, just seeing a few zigzagoon out of the corner of her eye and the tops of a couple oddish that had buried themselves for the day. A small flock of wingull flew overhead. There might have been kecleon around –  _ if any of them could tear themselves away from getting in people's way over in Fortree _ , Lucki thought – but if there were, they were invisible.

Saurius' wings finally unfurled. They were a pale, delicate green. He flapped them a few times and seemed satisfied. She recalled him, wondering if she'd have better luck finding pokemon by herself.

She kept going. It was getting late. She'd have to go back soon.

Twilight was just beginning, at that point where everything seems clearer even as the color fades to grey, when Lucki came to a small clearing. There, lying against a rock in the grass, was a sleeping absol.

Lucki took a step forward. A fallen leaf crunched underfoot and the absol's eyes snapped open in the same instant. It stood, facing her.

"Go, Flare," Lucki decided. "Flamethrower!"

The dark type leaped upward. The flamethrower shot underneath, hitting the rock and spraying outward around the smooth stone. A half second later the absol landed and sprang forward, slashing Flare's side from neck to tail with enough force to knock him back several feet. He staggered and collapsed, the gash bleeding freely.

Perhaps two seconds had elapsed.

Lucki recalled him, picking Saurius' pokeball and throwing it out next. "Razor leaf!" The grass type beat his new wings sharply, sending a cluster of smaller leaves shooting at his opponent, who darted left in a dodge then shot forward again at the tropius. Saurius twisted and beat his wings again, forcing the absol to turn sharply to the side to avoid the leaves, breaking off its attack. He sent a third flurry after the four-legged pokemon, making it retreat slightly.

"Body slam!" called Lucki.

Saurius charged, lumbering toward the absol at a rapidly increasing speed. The absol stood its ground until the last second, when it slid to the side, ducking under the wings and slashing open his side. Saurius bellowed.

"Magical leaf!" she shouted. Saurius beat his wings again. The absol tried to dodge but only managed to get halfway clear of the cloud with its jump. The remaining glittering leaves sliced the absol's body, but it didn't react, landing neatly from the jump and launching itself forward again for another slash attack.

"Fly!" Lucki called, hoping his wings were ready. The tropius began to flap his four wings rapidly as they stretched to their fullest length. The absol reached him just before he became airborne, slicing him across the chest and leaving another gash in his brown body. A moment later he was out of range. The absol watched silently, pacing slowly beneath. Once Saurius reached a sufficient height, he dropped. He looked like he'd hit the ground ten or so feet away from the absol, but at the last second he flared his wings, turning the speed of the fall into forward motion, shooting across the ground into the absol before it could dodge. The absol took the move silently, twisting its body and rolling with the attack so that it wound up in the air for an instant, with Saurius moving under it. He was still moving faster than the absol even after striking it, and the dark type raked his neck and back as he passed under.

Saurius staggered as he landed, while the absol completed its flip and landed gracefully, launching forward again the instant its paws touched the earth. It jumped him from behind, digging its claws into his back and biting into his neck. He bellowed again, struggling to shake the absol off. It leaped free as Lucki recalled him.

The absol landed in the grass, watching her.

Lucki had an idea. "Go, Raiden!" The wiry electric-type should be able to keep up. "Spark!"

Raiden tensed, gathering the electricity around himself, then tossed the sparking cloud of energy toward the absol, who dodged aside easily, then darted forward.

"Quick attack!" Lucki shouted. Raiden blurred forward, but the absol twisted aside, avoiding the attack and raking him across the shoulder with its claws.

_ Maybe... _ "Okay, wait!" Lucki called.

The manectric slowed to a stop and glanced back for a second before focusing on the absol again, which was creeping to the side, then lunged for him.

"Thunderwave!" Lucki shouted at the last second. Startled, Raiden released an unfocused, all-around shock like that of the Electrode in Wattson's gym. The absol tried to dodge, but it was impossible. The attack hit and the absol spasmed in paralysis. Lucki threw a pokeball. It hit the absol, turning it red and sucking it inside, only to burst open again immediately.

But the absol was looking worse. It stumbled slightly as it stood up, no longer so graceful.

Quickly, Lucki called, "Quick attack! Bite!"

Raiden slammed into the absol. It managed to recover and twist away from the following bite, but it didn't counterattack. Instead it jumped back.

"Another quick attack!" Lucki shouted.

Raiden ran at the absol, who tried to dodge. He hit it glancingly and it clawed him viciously in response, opening bloody cuts on his chest and side, then jumped back again. Raiden was staggering himself now too, but he was still standing.

"Quick attack, and spark!" Lucki called.

Energy built around Raiden. He ran at the absol, who managed to twist out of the way only to be hit by the spark attack.

Lucki threw another pokeball. This time, it held.

She sprayed a super potion over Raiden's injures, then recalled him. Then Lucki opened the absol's pokeball.

It materialized standing, facing her. "Release me."

"You talk!" Lucki gasped.

Her voice was smooth and silky, a seductive milk and honey sound, faintly exotic and utterly alien.

"Release me," the absol said again in the same beautiful voice.

"Hey, wait a second," Lucki told her. "I'm not a bad guy. I guess wild pokemon tell stories about us," she admitted, remembering how Raiden had acted, "but we're really not like that."

The absol seemed unmoved. "Release me," she said a third time.

Lucki sighed. "Look, just give me a chance, okay? If you don't like being my pokemon and still want me to let you go, I will."

"You'll regret this," the absol said. "I am disaster."


	10. drowned

"I know that's not really true," Lucki comforted.

The absol was silent.

"Really, I like you," Lucki continued. I don't care about old superstitions, no one believes those these days. Just stay with me for a while and then you can decide if you still want to leave."

"You honestly..." she said, Lucki interpreting the absol's inscrutable tone as stunned.

"Just give me a chance," Lucki repeated. She recalled the absol.

The twilight had deepened into night. She hurried back to get to the pokecenter.

_ Day Five _

Lucki woke up the next morning feeling great. She got dressed and glanced at her reflection in the mirror only to suddenly realize her pendant was gone.

She paused in shock, then looked frantically around her room. It was nowhere to be found. Grabbing her bag she rushed out.

"Nurse Joy," she asked desperately, "I lost my necklace! Have you seen one anywhere?"

Nurse Joy reached into one of the pockets of her apron and pulled out the green and gold necklace. "Is this it? One of the links on the chain broke."

"Yes, thank you!" Lucki told her, taking it gratefully.

"You should be more careful," chided the pokemon nurse. "That necklace looks expensive, and I'm sure you don't want to lose it."

"No," she agreed. "Um, is there anyone here who can fix it?"

Nurse Joy nodded. "Sure." She gave Lucki directions to the local jeweler. "He shouldn't have any problem fixing the chain."

"Thanks!" Lucki told her again. "Oh, do you know if the gym is open today?"

"Winona said that should be open in an hour or two."

"Okay." Lucki headed off.

Like everything else, the jeweler's storefront was located inside one of the mammoth trees. It was at ground level though, his house probably the second hollowed area above it. Lucki headed inside and explained her problem.

"Sure," he replied. "That won't be hard. Give me about an hour, I have to finish up something else first."

"Thanks. I don't know why I was so unlucky..." she added, wondering about the absol. She was surprised when he laughed suddenly.

"Gold is a delicate metal," he explained. "And this is a very thin, frail chain. I'd say you were quite lucky that it held up so long, and that when it did break, it wasn't while you were outside or anywhere else it'd be lost for good."

"Oh," Lucki responded, feeling a lot better.

She thanked him again and headed out.

Lucki headed west again to the route. This time she saw some other trainers about. She walked up to the first one. "Hi, I'm Lucki," she introduced. "Want to battle?"

The boy nodded. "Sure," he replied. "My name is Otto. Two on two work for you?" he asked, picking a greatball off his waist.

"Sure."

"Go!" Otto threw a pokeball into the air. It opened to reveal a light, almost white gray pokemon with a dark grey belly, small pointed jointless legs, a blunt spike in the middle of its back and black spots on its back and head, which was oversized and football-shaped, almost the same size as its small body. An equally black ring was around either eye, which were each a clear, startling light blue.

Lucki had wanted to have a practice battle with the absol, or at least Saurius, but neither of them would do well against the steel/rock aron before her. "Go, Flare!" she yelled. "Flamethrower!"

The fluffy red and white pokemon appeared, immediately exhaling a long stream of fire that hit the steel type directly.

"Dig!" shouted Otto quickly. The aron's small legs began rapidly digging into the earth. Within moments it was underground, out of reach of Flare's attacks and out of sight of either of them.

"Okay, Flare, just wait for it and use flamethrower when it appears."

Flare nodded, shifting his footing slightly and standing ready. But when the pokemon hit him from below on his underbelly, he yelped rather than retaliated as he was knocked into the air. He landed on his side and skidded. He got back up, dirt and grass in the fur on his side.

"Flare!" Lucki called, exasperated. "Focus!"

He dropped his head slightly. "Sorry."

"Take down!" the boy ordered.

"Dodge, quick!"

Flare jumped aside in time for the aron to charge past, moving too fast for it to correct its course.

_ Yes! _ "Okay, another flamethrower!"

Flare seared the slowing steel type with another burst of flame. This time it was the one to yelp.

Quickly Otto announced, "Dig again!"

Before it had quite came to a halt, the rock type had begun burrowing into the turf again, quickly making another hole in the ground and protecting itself.

"Okay Flare. This time pay attention!"

"I'll get it," he told her, bracing himself.

After several seconds, the aron erupted from the ground, striking Flare. He hit it back with a blast of flames powerful enough to send it back against the earth, although, Lucki noticed, not as well as Silver had when Lucki had tried the strategy with the small turtle. He landed on his side again.

The aron's side and head were blackened. Lucki didn't know if it was tired or not.

"Take down!" Otto shouted.

The armor pokemon charged at Flare, who was still struggling to his feet. He didn't manage in time, just barely making it up before the aron reached him. He was struck hard, skidding across the clearing into a tree. Still on his side, he inhaled and sent an ember to strike the aron head on.

"Great! Finish it off with one more take down!" the boy ordered confidently.

"C'mon, Flare, dodge!" Flare managed to get on his feet in time to move to the side, sending the aron crashing into the tree behind him. The wood split around his head. "Great! Flamethrower!"

From barely a foot away, the flareon shot a white-hot burst into the steel pokemon. The wood around it caught fire. The aron managed to pull free easily and back away from the flames, but it had a burn on one side of its head and was moving unsteadily on its four pointed legs. Flare hit it with another ember, and it fainted.

"Return. Go, Sunspot!" A second flareon materialized.

Lucki pulled a new pokeball off her belt. "Flare, return," she commanded. "Go, Silver!"

"Quick attack!"

"Water gun!"

The flareon powered through the blasting water to hit Silver. She was knocked back, off her feet. She stood again and sent another water gun burst into the fire type's side. It yelped and scrambled back.

"Headbutt!"

The flame pokemon lowered its head and charged as Lucki called quickly, "Bubble! Slow it down!"

Silver spewed out a thick froth. It stuck to the flareon but the charging pokemon had too much momentum to be slowed. The eevee evolution barreled on to headbutt Silver in the chest.

"Ow!" she yelled, hitting the ground again.

"Keep using bubble!"

Silver inhaled deeply, then sent out a huge torrent of the tiny bubbles, enough to coat and cover the opposing pokemon. Under the mass, the flareon struggled weakly, blinded and encumbered.

"All right! Good going Silver, now pound it with another water gun!"

She hit the fire type headfirst with another blast, clearing away the bubbles around its head and torso so that the foam only remained around its legs. Still, that would prevent it from attacking by charging her.

"Flamethrower!" shouted Otto.

"Water gun!" Lucki countered sharply.

But Silver stared, looking frozen, at the flames coming at her, then popped into her shell. When the attack faded she had fainted.

Lucki groaned. She rushed over to Silver and sprayed a potion over the minor burns as Silver woke up.

"Silver, why didn't you do what I said? We would've won."

"I-I'm sorry, I just..." Silver looked down. "Panicked," she whispered. "I'll do better, I promise."

Lucki turned to Otto. "Good battle," she told him, recalling Silver.

"You too."

Lucki checked her watch. She decided to start back. By the time she reentered Fortree, healed her pokemon and picked up her necklace, the gym should be ready.

She made it back there to the Pokemon Center without running into Kecleon at any point, so it seemed they'd been successful at removing the annoying pests. Her pokemon healed, she went to the jeweler, who had her fixed necklace.

"The chain is completely repaired," he told her, "but that doesn't mean it won't break again. You might want to reconsider wearing it while you're walking around in the wild."

"Okay, thanks," Lucki replied. She put the necklace into a pocket on her bag instead of over her neck, paid him, and exited, continuing on her way to the gym.

"Hey! Lucki!" shouted a familiar voice. Lucki turned to see Violet hurrying toward her, a blonde-haired girl in tow. "It's great to see you. Oh, this is Sapphire," she introduced.

The blonde girl smiled. "Hello, it's nice to meet you." She had light brown, toffee colored eyes.

"So, how are you doing?" Violet asked.

"Well, this gym will be my fourth badge." Lucki gestured to her belt. "And I just caught my fifth pokemon yesterday."

"Really? Cool. I've only got three pokemon so far. I've gotten five badges, though. What's your team? I got a bagon and seadra."

"A flareon, manectric, tropius and absol."

"Oh, an absol?" repeated Sapphire. "Those are so cool. There are some around here?"

"Yeah, I caught it over on Route 120."

"Well," Violet stated, "we shouldn't keep you from your badge any longer. Good luck!"

"Thanks," Lucki replied. "Bye!"

"Bye!" Lucki headed further and climbed down the ladder. She didn't run, just in case there was one last Kecleon hanging around. But if there was, it got out of her way, and she got to the door without incident.

The sign was gone and Lucki pushed the door open. It was plainly decorated in grays and light browns, but the ceiling was amazingly high, with a smooth, beam-less curve that looked like it must have been expensive to build. She walked through the mazelike corridors for a bit before coming to a woman who could only be Winona.

She was wearing a heavy blue outfit that covered her whole body. She had a pair of light blue, almost white bagged pants, the hems long enough to drape over her blue shoes, a longsleeved shirt that was the same color except for two brighter blue bands around each arm just past the shoulder. Over these she had a sleeveless blue sweater that was long enough to reach past her hips, almost as far as Roxanne's dress. Her hands were also covered by a pair of blue gloves and she had a blue choker around her neck. On top of her head was a modified version of an aviation hat, blue like the rest of her outfit with a set of flying goggles. Her purple hair flared out on either side at her temple, and Lucki could see that the rest of her hair hung loose behind her, a bit longer than the bottom of her sweater.

"You have five pokemon," Winona observed. "Then we may battle with five pokemon each."

Lucki nodded in agreement.

Winona threw a pokeball forward. It burst over the marked arena area, and a small blue pokemon around a foot in size appeared in midair, looking like it had two plumes of white cloud on either side.

Lucki knew gym leaders often started off with a weaker pokemon, and the fact this was unevolved meant that was probably true this time. She considered and picked the absol's pokeball. She hadn't had a chance to practice battle with the absol yet – or even name her, Lucki thought a trifle guiltily – so it was best to use her now, when it wouldn't cost her the match if something went wrong. "Go!"

The absol materialized sitting. She looked calmly over her shoulder at Lucki, then forward again.

"Absol, use bite!"

"Fury attack!"

Before the diminutive blue bird pokemon could execute the attack, the absol leaped at the Swablu, swiping it from the air with one oversized paw. It went careening into the ground, bloody scratches across its chest, and lay there twitching with crumpled wings.

"Great job, Absol!" Lucki called encouragingly as Winona recalled the fainted cotton bird. The absol gave no sign she heard Lucki, walking calmly to the left, off the arena floor and out of bounds. Disqualified.

Lucki groaned.

She recalled the dark type as Winona released a tropius.

"Go, Flare," Lucki decided.

"Body slam!"

"Dodge, quick!"

The tropius lowered its head and charged. Flare rolled out of the way as Winona called, "Stomp!" The grass pokemon reared up sharply, then struck Flare hard with one thick leg, pinning him.

"Ember!"

Still pinned, Flare shot a ball of flame directly into the underbelly of the tropius. It let out a cry and twisted to get out of the scorching heat, landing heavily on one side. Flare scrambled up, freed.

"Flamethrower!"

While the tropius was still struggling to get back on its feet, Flare hit it again, the flames engulfing half its body a moment.

"Earthquake!"

The tropius struck the ground with its forelegs. A second later the ground under Flare trembled, then shot upward. Flare's legs crumpled under him. He started to get up and half fell again.

"Another earthquake!"

The ground hit him again, tossing him several feet like a ragdoll. He managed to get to his feet, moving unsteadily.

"C'mon, Flare, you've got the advantage! Use flamethrower again!"

"Fly!"

Flare inhaled, but the tropius had jumped upward as its wings began to beat, allowing it to become airborne a second before the stream of fire would have hit. It zoomed up to hover near the ceiling.

"See if you can hit it, Flare!" Lucki told him.

Flare shot another flamethrower upward, but the flames flickered out well before reaching the grass-flying pokemon. He tried throwing an ember attack upward, but the ball of fire guttered out along the way, dissipating barely three-fourths of the way there. Lucki sighed.  _ I guess he's not strong enough. _

The tropius dropped suddenly, executing the second half of the move. "Flare, use flamethrower, quick!" Lucki called, but he wasn't fast enough to manage before the tropius hit him headfirst, sending him tumbling almost out of the arena himself. He pushed himself halfway up with his forelegs and sent out a white blast of flame into the tropius. Its chest blackened and the wings on one side shriveled up. The grass type let out a cry and crumpled to the ground.

"Return," Winona announced. She threw out a new pokeball. The pokemon that appeared was vaguely hatchet-shaped and looked almost like its whole body was its head, somewhat reminiscent of the nosepass Lucki had fought back in Rustboro in Roxanne's gym. It had a massive yellow beak that took up easily half its size including its wings, taking up the area where its stomach should have been and and running all the way to its tail. The small amount of its body that wasn't beak was white, with a small raise for its forehead where its large black eyes were placed. The front of that area was covered in a blue streak, but the sides were white as well. It had two odd wings that looked almost like arms or flippers, narrow things that ended in a set of thick, clearly defined blue feathers that gave it the optical illusion of having fingers at first glance.

Pelipper were water types. Lucki recalled Flare. She considered. Raiden was the obvious choice, but he'd have the advantage here for the rest too, and she would probably be using her whole team in this battle. "Go, Saurius! Razor leaf!"

"Deflect it with a gust attack!"

Saurius beat his wings once, sending dozens of small green leaves shooting at the water type. The pelipper beat its own wings several times, sending hard gusts of wind toward its opponent and the attack. The leaves were blown aside and the rushing air collided with Saurius, who bent under the driving wind.

"Magical leaf!" Lucki called.

He beat his wings again, this time releasing leaves that sparkled slightly in the air as they bore down on the pelipper.

"Blow it away again!" Winona ordered confidently. The pelipper sent another series of gusts into the attack, but the hurtling leaves were unaffected, shooting through the air currents to pelt the water pokemon, which flinched under the barrage.

"Wing attack, then!"

"Headbutt!"

The pelipper swooped in to hit Saurius, only for the long-necked pokemon to strike it hard with his head. The water bird pokemon landed, momentarily stunned.

"Great! Leech seed!"

Saurius opened his mouth, spitting out several large seeds that landed on the dazed pelipper and sprouted, digging their roots into its body. They glowed a gentle green as they began absorbing energy.

"Pelipper, snap out of it and use ice beam!"

"Quick, fly!"

Saurius' wings began to beat. The pelipper didn't react immediately to the order, giving him just enough time to lift off.

But Winona reacted instantly. "Now, twister!"

The pelipper began beating its paddle-shaped wings again, forming a tightly packed cyclone of furiously swirling air. With a final strike of its wings it released the twister attack, sending it spinning into Saurius, who let out a startled cry as he was pulled in and spun around for almost a minute, before being tossed out to slam into the ground. He was clearly beaten. Lucki recalled him. Raiden it was then. "Go!"

"Ice beam! Try to freeze it!" shouted Winona.

"Dodge! Spark!" Lucki countered.

Raiden jumped out of the way of the energy beam, electric current gathering and arcing over his body. Landing he tossed the cloud of electricity into the water-flying pokemon, who spasmed, letting out a loud squawk.

"Blizzard!"

The water type beat its wings sharply, daggers of ice materializing in the air and shooting forward into Raiden. He yelped, tumbling back as they pelted him.

"Another spark!"

"Try to dodge!"

The pelipper started to move, but then shuddered as the seeds entangling it glowed, sucking up more energy. While it was distracted, Raiden sent another ball of electricity into it. The water bird let out another cry and collapsed, paralyzed.

"Go!" called Winona, recalling the water bird pokemon and sending out Lucki's next opponent.

The new pokemon was huge in comparison to the pelipper, easily a foot and a half larger and with a far greater wingspan. It was far different in other ways as well. It was steel colored except for red on the underside of its wings, with the rest of its body being a mix of light and dark gray plates. The large "feathers" of those wings, four of which made up each one, looked like flat knives and had pointed tips. Its head was similarly pointed, with a sharp beak tip and a swoop on its head resembling a shark's fin. Its talons were slightly triangular, with each corner looking like a knife's edge, and the tips of the talons were slightly hooked. Sinister red eyes under heavy gray brows completed the intimidating picture.

"Return!" Lucki decided, holding out Raiden's pokeball. Flare would have the advantage here too, and Raiden was better kept in reserve for whatever Winona's final pokemon was. "Go Flare! Flamethrower!"

Flare reacted quickly, sending out the attack before Winona could give a counter order. The flames rushed over the skarmory's body, spraying outward at the sides.

"Swift!" The skarmory opened its mouth with a raucous cry, sending out a flurry of tiny white glowing stars. Flare cringed as they struck him. "Rock slide!"

_ Skarmory can use that? _

The steel type focused, then flared out its wings with another cry. Rocks fell from the ceiling, burying Flare. The pile quivered as he began to struggle his way out. The skarmory beat its wings, taking to the air just long enough to land next to the mound of stones. When Flare dragged himself out, it pecked him immediately, driving its long beak into his shoulder. He let out a cry.

Winona called, "Bury him again!" The armor bird flared its wings a second time and hopped backward as a second time. Rocks fell on top of him. Seconds passed as he struggled underneath. When he appeared again, Winona responded with, "Wing attack."

"Flamethrower!"

Flare sent out another blast of searing flame. When the attack cleared, the skarmory flew closer and hit him with one extended steel wing hard enough for Lucki to hear across the room, and Flare crumpled. She recalled him.  _ I was hoping he'd last longer... _ she thought ruefully, sending out Raiden again.

"Spark, Raiden!" Sparks began gathering and arcing over the manectric's body.

"Steel wing!" Before Raiden could released the attack, the skarmory flew at him, a sudden white glow running over its wings as energy gathered for the move. It struck him along the side with one wing as he shoved the electric cloud into its body, both pokemon shouting as the attacks hit. Raiden didn't look much worse for wear, but the skarmory was clearly on its last legs, barely remaining upright.

"Finish it off with a thundershock, Raiden!" Lucki called confidently. Raiden barked, sending the energy arcing off him and into the flying type, who fainted.

Winona was down to her last pokemon now. Lucki was starting to feel like things were going well.

"Go!" shouted the gym leader, hurling the pokeball out.

Like Winona's first pokemon, it was blue and white, although it was around three times larger and rather than distinct wings its body was wrapped in what looked like a cloud. Two small feet poked out at the bottom and trailing blue tailfeathers could be seen as well. A long swan's neck lifted its head above the white fluff.

Altaria. Part dragon type, Raiden wouldn't have the advantage he normally would against a flying type. Still, his electric attacks would work. "Use quick attack, then spark!"

Raiden blurred as he raced forward, electricity gathering. He struck the smaller pokemon, discharging the lightning at the same time.

"Fury attack!"

Before Raiden could attempt to withdraw out of range, the dragon type pecked sharply at this face and chest several times, making him flinch under the blows.

"Earthquake!"

The altaria rapped the ground with one foot, and it rumbled under Raiden's feet before jumping upward, hard, sending the discharge pokemon flying. He didn't get back up and Lucki recalled him.

"Silver!" she shouted, releasing her starter. "Water gun!"

Silver shot a torrent of water into the humming pokemon, knocking it out of the air for a moment. It promptly bounced back up, hovering as it waited for the next order.

"Dragonbreath!"

"Silver, use mirror coat!"

The dragon type inhaled and sent out a stream of blue fire, hitting Silver, who had begun to shine faintly. A second later an answering blast shot into the altaria.

"Take down!"

It swooped forward, hitting the small squirtle hard and sending her tumbling. She got back up stiffly.

"Again!"

"Bubble, weight it down!"

Silver breathed in and then shot out a foam into the approaching pokemon, covering it in another layer of white, then ducked at the last second. Unbalanced by the water covering its body, the attack narrowly missed.

"Use dragon dance to clear it off!"

The altaria let out a sharp, clear cry like a small bell, then began to swoop in a tight, weaving loop. The bubbly foam was stripped off by the air.

"Earthquake!"

"Water gun!"

Silver blasted it as it darted down to rap the ground again. She let out a cry as the ground shuddered and struck her, interrupting her attack. Seemingly stunned, she didn't get up immediately.

"Solar beam!"

The altaria let out another ringing cry. Greenish golden energy began gathering about its body. It built into a semi-translucent ball just in front of its head.

"Silver, get up!"

The tiny turtle was just barely pushing herself upright when the move completed. The altaria threw the ball straight forward. Silver yelled as the blast hit, knocking her backwards to roll over the ground.

"Finish it off with dragon claw!"

The altaria slashed its talons across Silver, scoring deep into one arm. Lucki stared in shock as bright red blood welled up, stark against the squirtle's gray skin. Silver opened her mouth and shot a glowing ice beam into her opponent.

Lucki rushed over as Winora recalled the fainted dragon type. "Silver are you okay," she started to say, reaching for her pokemon.

"Don't touch me!" Silver screamed, jerking away before Lucki could touch her, her own voice half-drowning the translator. She stared at Lucki with the desperate, panicked eyes of something trapped.


	11. the

Back at the pokecenter, Lucki chatted with Vi and Sapphire while waiting for her pokemon to be healed by Nurse Joy.

"So how'd you get your name?" Lucki asked Sapphire.

The brown-eyed girl giggled, sounding half amused and half embarrassed. "Well, I had bright blue eyes when I was born, and with my hair and all," she explained, twisting a lock between her fingers, "my parents figured I'd stay blonde and blue eyed, but instead my eyes got dark after a week or two." She nodded to Violet. "Probably they should have named me Goldy instead."

"Lucki!" called Nurse Joy. "Your pokemon are healed!" Lucki said goodbye and headed up to the counter to retrieve her pokemon.

"Um, they're all okay, right? My squirtle's arm was cut in my gym battle..."

"It's fine, that's what pokemon centers are for."

"Oh, okay. Thanks!"

Lucki headed out of the pokecenter, heading west again. She released Silver.

"Are you okay now?" she asked.

Silver nodded. "...yeah. Sorry."

"What happened?"

"Sorry," Silver repeated. "It was just that I..." She trailed off.

"That your arm hurt? Don't worry, it's okay," Lucki told her.

Silver nodded again, slowly, touching her healed arm.

The two continued on and shortly were back on Route 120.

_ Maybe we could use a break _ , she thought. Give the absol some time to get used to them. They could probably use some training, too. Flare hadn't done as well as she'd hoped in the last gym battle.

_ And I need to give the absol a name. Maybe Abby? _

Lucki's stomach rumbled. Looking at her watch, she realized it was about one-thirty and she hadn't eaten lunch yet. A break definitely seemed like a good idea.

She continued walking for another ten minutes, until she came to a suitable clearing. She stopped there, cleared an area for a small fire and gathered wood. Her stomach rumbled again and she ate a snack from her bag to tide her over, then finished setting up. It was still somewhat chilly so she set a pot over the firepit to cook soup, filling it with water from her canteen, then released her pokemon.

The absol looked about slowly, then lay down where she had materialized.

"She caught you?" remarked Flare, sounding surprised.

"Yeah you didn't know?" Raiden replied. "I did it!"

"Of course you did," Flare commented.

"Caught who? Who are you?" Silver asked.

"Flare, you can talk in a sec. First, use ember to light the wood, kay?"

"Oh. Sorry." Flare turned and let out a weak ember. The wood caught and blazed up immediately.

"Okay, that's done," Lucki remarked to herself. "Next item. So Absol, you need a name. How about-"

"I have a name," the absol said, raising her head and looking at Lucki coolly.

Lucki hadn't been expecting that. "Oh, what?"

"Irin."

"Okay," Lucki responded. For some reason, she'd been expecting something longer and more eloquent. "Then that'll be your name."

The absol did not reply, lying back down.

"Anyway, guys, I decided we could use a break, so you can just hang out today."

"Cool!" barked Raiden, jumping up and down. He took off, running about and jumping from stone to stone.

"And Absol – Irin – is our newest teammate, so make her feel welcome!" Lucki added.  _ I hope the others can convince Irin, she still seems pretty unsure about belonging to me. _

She headed off to get more wood while the soup heated, leaving her pokemon to walk among themselves.

When she got back Silver was practicing hitting things with her water gun. Flare was walking about, sniffing the camp area and looking around. The absol was where she'd been when Lucki left, and Raiden was still bounding about. She wondered if they'd tried to talk to the absol or not.

-

Flare had lain down, not exactly close to Lucki but not far either, and on the opposite side from the absol. Lucki was finishing up her soup.

Raiden walked somewhat hesitantly toward Flare. "Um, wanna play?" he asked.

Flare's eyes didn't open. "No."

"Flare!" Lucki chastised. "You shouldn't sit around and sulk all day. It'd be good exercise. You could use some running practice, you know."

"Sorry," Flare apologized, sounding sincere. He stood up and followed Raiden, whose tail was wagging happily.

Lucki headed over to Silver, who was resting, looking tired, a little way off. "How are you?"

"I think I'm getting better," Silver replied quietly.

"Uh, about what I said about talking to the absol. Have you?"

"We kind of, I said hi and stuff, but she's kind of..." Silver trailed off. "Imposing, I guess. And it seemed like I should wait until she wasn't resting to talk. Sorry."

"It's okay, just make sure you do talk to her. Make her feel welcome. It's like all of you are avoiding her right now," Lucki told Silver.

Silver nodded. "I will."

By late afternoon, the absol was sitting calmly, although it wasn't clear if she was watching or meditating or lost in thought. It started to get darker and the pokemon formed a loose ring near the fire while Lucki got out her sleeping bag. They started talking to one another, and with the absol.

"She's really a very nice person," volunteered Silver as Lucki lay down. "You'll like her once you get to know her. It might seem scary at first, but it's not really once you get used to it."

"If you felt it was scary," the absol said in her beautiful alien voice, "then it was, wasn't it?"

"I guess, but," Silver half stammered, sounding uncertain, "I mean, once you...It's not really, I just thought it was...I just was, at first...It's not as bad as it seems, at first..."

Saurius spoke up as Silver trailed off. "Lucki is a good trainer," he asserted, and explained how she had helped him. "I joined her of my own choice. She's not cruel, and she knows what she's doing. She is a good person."

"Yes," Flare agreed emphatically.

"Yeah! She plays with me sometimes," Raiden told the absol, "and she helped me learn all sorts of new moves and ways of fighting so I can win."

Lucki closed her eyes and started to drift off to sleep. She thought she heard the absol say, "And what about you?" but she wasn't sure what it meant or who it was said to, or even if it was said at all.

_ Day Four _

When she woke the next morning she saw the fire had died out during the night. Her pokemon and items were all still there though, making a marked improvement over the last time she'd slept outside. The absol was awake already. Lucki yawned and started to break down the camp. It didn't take her long to have everything packed up. She recalled her pokemon and headed out.

She hadn't been walking long before she ran into another trainer, a boy about her age but almost a head shorter than her, with brown hair and brownish-blue eyes. "Hi," she introduced. "I'm Lucki. Want to battle?"

"Sure," he replied. "I'm Jerry."

"Okay. How about one on one?"

"Sure," he replied again.

Lucki sent out Flare.

The boy considered, then picked a greatball and tossed it forward. A round pokemon appeared. Its back and the top half of its face to its upper jaw were blue, barring a handful of white spots on its back, all the way to its small tail. Its lower jaw and underside were solid white, reaching back to a bit after its two small flippers that it used to hold itself steady.

Spheal.  _ It's a water type, but it's part ice, too, _ Lucki thought quickly.  _ So Flare isn't at as much of a disadvantage as it seems. And spheal is only the first stage, too. _

"Water sport!" Jerry called. The round pokemon tilted its head up, shooting a fountain of water into the air, coating itself. It then spun around on the ground, so that the fountain sprayed everywhere. Flare yelped and jumped back at the droplets.

_ Cool. I wonder if Silver can learn that? _

Within thirty seconds, the battle area was saturated. Flare was dancing about, trying not to step in the soggy grass. "Flare, it's only a little water," Lucki called. "Focus!"

"Water gun!" The spheal inhaled, rocking back, then aimed at Flare and shot out a burst of water. Flare jumped to the side, avoiding it, then slipped on the grass and scrabbled to stay upright, barely catching his balance.

"Flamethrower!"

Flare breathed in sharply, then shot red and yellow flames from his mouth, covering the spheal so that it was completely obscured. When the attack ended, Lucki saw that the spheal seemed dazed, and steam was rising from its body and the ground around it.

"All right Flare, take down!"

The fire type charged, slamming headfirst into the spheal's body. The force knocked it back, but Flare bounced off it as well.

"Mud slap!" Before Flare could recover, the spheal spun around, sending up a wave of mud that collided with the flame pokemon, coating the fur on his head and chest with mud. "Now, rollout!"

The spheal began to spin again, but this time rather than spinning like a top with a single point staying against the ground, it rolled like a wheel, skidding a moment as it picked up traction, then starting toward Flare, who was pawing at the mud in his eyes. It hit him headfirst, sending him flying to smack back into the ground a moment later. He stumbled blindly to his feet, turning about desperately to try to figure out where the next attack would come, only to be struck heavily in the side and sent skidding through the muddy grass. He got up again, only to be hit again and knocked down.

"Focus!" called Lucki again. "Listen for it coming, and once it hits, try to get it with flamethrower!"

Flare stilled a bit, shaking his head to try to dislodge the mud from his eyes and ears. The spheal came at him again and he tried to jump to the side. The blow still hit but it was more glancing and he remained standing. It was hard enough, though, to disorient him and he sent out a wild flamethrower that was nowhere near the spheal.

"Flare, come on! You can do it!" shouted Lucki.

The flareon braced himself as the spheal prepared for another attack. He stood still, listening. He tried to move aside at the last second, breathing in, and when the spheal hit he twisted his head in the direction of the blow and exhaled a blast of flame, breaking the spin.

While the water type was still dazed, Lucki shouted, "Quick! Take down!"

Flare shook his head, stumbling backwards. He pawed at his face.

"Hurry up!" Lucki shouted.

Jerry saw that his spheal was no longer dazed and called, "Water gun!"

The spheal inhaled quickly and sent another torrent of water into Flare, who let out a choking yelp and was knocked off his feet.

"Come on!" Lucki shouted again, frustrated. "Take down!"

The fire type scrabbled to his feet and charged, kicking up mud as his paws dug into the wet ground, and hit the water/ice type directly. Its round body rolled across the grass at a slower spin than during its rollout attack until it collided with one of the trees nearby.

"Return," announced Jerry, seeing it was unconscious. The spheal turned red and was sucked back into the pokeball.

Flare watched this, then slumped down into the mud, barely conscious himself. Jerry laughed, surprised. "That was close."

Lucki laughed as well, although she blushed in embarrassment. "Flare, you're making me look bad," she chided, heading over to give him a potion.

"...sorry," he responded, his voice distant or perhaps dazed.

Lucki recalled him. She started to continue, skidding a bit in the mud and almost falling. She walked carefully until she was clear of the battle area, then sped up, her strides larger and more confident.

It was a beautiful day, Lucki reflected. The sun was shining brightly, warming the air to a comfortable temperature for walking and no further, and the sky was nearly clear, with only a few fluffy clouds drifting in the blue to break up the expanse. Now that she was past the wet battle area, the ground was dry and firm, making for easy walking.

She didn't meet any other trainers along the way, and aside from a quick battle with a challenging linoone, who Silver took out easily, there were no other interruptions. Before long, lunchtime had arrived and Lucki decided to stop and set up for a meal. She released her pokemon so they could stretch their legs while she prepared some food. Then she realized her canteen was nearly empty and headed off to find a stream to refill it.

"...want me," Flare was saying to the absol when she got back, voice muted.

"It was never your failing, so of course you cannot fix it," the absol said in her golden voice. It was so clear and undoubting Lucki felt, hearing it, that whatever it was, it must be true.

"Hi guys," Lucki called as she approached. Flare jumped up, tail raised momentarily. "Making friends?" She looked at the absol. "You see, I'm not so bad after all." Flare's tail had dipped back to its normal position.

"You have made your choice," said the absol in the same certain voice. "You have no need to make attempts at convincing me; I shall remain until the end."

"Um...okay..." Lucki responded, not sure what to make of this.

She ate quickly, wanting to be on her way. There was a waystation for trainers to rest at further along the route, and she was hoping to get there before dark. Sleeping outside was fine on an occasional basis but she'd rather sleep in a bed tonight. Especially if it wound up raining. The few clouds earlier in the morning had started gathering friends, and the western half of the sky was now covered with them. She walked briskly.

It got darker, both from the sun dipping closer and closer to the horizon and the clouds reaching further across the sky. Lucki was starting to worry she wouldn't find the waystation, but she rounded a curve in the road and saw it off in the distance.

_ Finally! _ Lucki sped up a little, hurrying toward the older wooden building.

Inside Lucki found other trainers lounging in a common room just beyond the front desk, pokemon splayed out around them. She signed her name for a room, was told there'd be food ready in a half hour, and headed over to chat with the others. She released her five pokemon as she entered. Without a pokecenter healing machine, the next best thing was just giving them time out to recover their strength.

Perhaps ten or fifteen minutes passed. One of the other trainers got a call on her cell phone. "What? Wow! Really? Where? Okay!" she snapped it shut and turned to the trainer closest to the remote. "Hey, turn on the TV! Channel five!" The boy grabbed the remote and did so. Lucki, like everyone, looked to the glowing screen, curious what this was all about.

"...report has been verified. Team Magma appeared in the Route 119 area earlier today, poaching the tropius herds as well as assorted other wild pokemon. This is their second reported appearance in the area in the past few days," the newswoman stated.

A quiet, deep cry came from Lucki's right, like the low groan of a tree. Lucki looked toward it.

"Saurius?"

He turned his long neck slowly to regard her. After a moment, sounding as if he was speaking from a great depth, he said in a calm, slow voice, almost as if to himself, "Why did I leave with you?" There was no accusation, no anger, just a distant sad bafflement. "Why did I leave?"

_ Day Three _

In the morning Lucki turned on the unclaimed television to see if she could catch the morning news. She was in luck.

"After yesterday's incident with Team Magma, officials in the Mt. Chimney area have taken up Team Aqua's offer of protection, admitting worry that Team Magma may make a second attempt at stealing the meteorite. Members of the Team are moving into the area, concentrating around Fallarbor Town," said a newscaster. "And now, the weather."

Lucki shrugged and flicked the TV off again.  _ Well, that's good. Team Magma won't get away with anything more. _

She recalled most of her pokemon, leaving Silver out, thinking the tiny turtle could use the exercise of a short walk. Water types like squirtle were really at their best in the water, so getting more practice traveling on land never hurt.

They hadn't gone far before running into another trainer headed in the opposite direction.

"Hey, a squirtle!" the female trainer announced, jogging over. "Wow, I haven't seen anyone else using one of those."

"Oh, you have one?" Lucki asked.

The girl nodded. "Well, it's a wartortle now. But yeah."

"Cool, want to have a battle?"

"Between the two? Sure." The other girl threw out a premierball, releasing a wartortle.

"All right, Silver, tackle!"

"Dodge and bite!"

Silver ran forward, charging her opponent, who dropped onto all fours so that her attack struck the edge of the turtle pokemon's shell and simply bounced off. While she was off balance the wartortle snapped its jaws closed on Silver's leg. She let out a shout and then blasted the wartortle with water gun. The attack managed to knock it loose.

"Is that the best you can do?" demanded the wartortle arrogantly, getting up easily.

"Pull back and use skull bash!" called the other girl.

"Silver, use water gun and then dodge when it charges!" Lucki directed.

As the wartortle lowered its head and got into a crouch, Silver sent another torrent of water into it. Then, almost without warning, the wartortle shot forward, pushing through the high-powered blast as if it wasn't there. Silver dove to the side, the attack barely missing.

"Tackle now!"

Just as the wartortle managed to come to a halt, Silver jumped the other water type from behind, tackling it and knocking it to the ground. Expression irritated, the wartortle twisted around and blasted her with its own water gun, sending her flying off the larger water pokemon. As Silver stood back up, the wartortle inhaled in preparation of another water gun.

"Mirror coat!" Lucki shouted.

Silver didn't react immediately but shimmered at the last second as the wartortle launched its attack. The blast hit, water flying everywhere and temporarily obscuring the tiny turtle. When it stopped, an answering torrent of water hit the wartortle, smashing it across the field.

"Enough of this – skull bash!" ordered the other girl.

Lucki had been expecting a delay, like there had been the first time. Instead the wartortle charged, smashing into Silver before either of them could react. She collapsed.

"Good battle," Lucki complemented, heading over to Silver and spraying her with a potion, waking the squirtle up. "Your wartortle's pretty strong."

"Thanks," the other girl replied. "You did pretty well yourself."

Lucki recalled Silver and continued on. She walked for a few more hours, not making much progress. The terrain was hilly and overgrown with thick grass, at times blocking the path. Here and there were ridges allowing for a quick shortcut to the next length of trail, but many were too high for her to attempt, or would drop her first into dubious patches of deep, tangled vegetation she'd have to fight through to get back onto the main path. Still others were facing in the opposite direction, useful if she ever came back this way but, for the moment, having no more use than to mock her progress. Sticking to the trail, she went up and down and up again, occasionally trying to cut across and less occasionally regretting it. Lunch came and went as Lucki, frustrated by her slowness, munched on a sandwich while she continued rather than take a break. Finally, though, she seemed to be out of the worst of it and the path had smoothed out into something mostly level. Minutes later, Lucki saw a familiar figure around a bend in the path.

"Oh hey!" yelled Lucki. "Keegan!" He turned to see her and waved, waiting as she broke into a jog to catch up.

"Hey," he greeted. "Nice to see you again, Lucki."

"Same here. What are you doing in the area? The Safari Zone?"

Keegan shook his head. "I might check it out," he allowed, "but I'm here to visit Mt. Pyre."

"Oh – your pokemon...?"

"No, no, they're fine. I'm just going to visit the shrine for luck before my next big battle. It's going to be pretty hard. How about you?"

"I'm headed toward Lilycove," Lucki explained. "Then on to the islands for my next badge. I might stop at the Safari Zone, though. I've gotten five pokemon. A sixth would complete my team. Seems you're ahead of me there, though," she observed, seeing that he now had three pokeballs on either side of his belt.

"Yeah, just finished. A mawile, vileplume and voltorb. So you got the badge back in Fortree?"

Lucki nodded.

"What'd you think? Easy or hard?"

"Pretty hard," Lucki admitted. "I had an electric type, but none of my others had a real advantage. And my newest two, well, one was a grass type, and the other...we're still getting used to each other."

Keegan nodded sympathetically. "Some pokemon take a while to warm up to their trainer."

"I guess." Lucki sighed.

They continued south.

"So what's happened?" Keegan asked. "Anything interesting?"

"Ran into some Team Magma jerks," Lucki grumbled. "Got my pokemon stolen back when they attacked Route 119 the first time. It's a good thing we've got the good guys like Team Aqua's around to keep them in line."

Keegan smiled wryly. "Good guys?"

"Well, yeah. I didn't trust them at first, but they've protecting us from Magma."

"If you say so."

"What, you don't think so?"

"Magma and Aqua are enemies, you know. Of course Aqua shows up wherever Magma is. That doesn't mean they care about any of you."

"Hey, they returned the stolen pokemon! And they offered to protect Lavaridge and Fallarbor from Magma."

"Only because they thought they'd be stopping Magma," Keegan replied as they approached a fork in the road.

"And the stolen pokemon?"

"Eh. By that point, the police weren't far behind. Besides, they wouldn't have any use for them. Aqua's the stronger team, after all." He shook his head. "I'm just saying, I wouldn't be so trusting."

Lucki shrugged. "It's not like I'm about to sign up," she retorted. "I just think they've shown themselves to be pretty decent." Her stomach rumbled. "Also, I'm getting hungry. Wanna stop for supper soon?"

"Sorry," Keegan apologized, "but I've got to keep going." He pointed to the southern branch of the road. "Besides, we're about to split up, right? You're going west."

Lucki nodded. "Too bad...well, maybe we'll meet up again."

Keegan smiled. "I hope so. Well, goodbye," he told her, starting off down the southern fork.

"Bye!" Lucki called, waving. She continued a bit further before stopping to rest. The wind had picked up and it was getting chilly, so she started a campfire after releasing her pokemon.

Silver sat a bit apart, seemingly lost in thought.

By the time she'd gotten set up for supper, Raiden had been running in progressively faster circles for almost ten minutes. Swaying on his feet, he stumbled over and lay down near the flames, panting heavily. Flare watched the whole thing dispassionately from where he was sitting.

"You really should try harder, Flare," Lucki chided. "You know, give it your all. Just look at how hard Raiden works. He runs until he's exhausted. I mean, sometimes I wonder if you're up for this. You have to give effort."

"I...understand," Flare said slowly, standing. "I'm – sorry. I'll work harder." He tossed a glance to the manectric before he began to sprint across the grass in wide loops.

Raiden had already fallen asleep near the campfire. He looked cute and innocent, flopped on the ground with his head in his paws. Lucki smiled and went back to stirring the soup.

It was just starting to bubble, finally warmed up, when Raiden began to twitch in his sleep. Sparks fizzled in the air. He yelped, waking up.

"Raiden, are you okay?" she asked, taking a step toward him. He shouted and jumped, shocking her.

"Ow!" Lucki burst out. "Why'd you do that?"

"Sorry..." Raiden said. He was still shaking. "My dream...I was upset from that."

"You had a nightmare? What was it?"

"I was...with my mom and dad, but they couldn't see me, and I was shouting but they couldn't hear me, and they were talking about me, saying I was dead."

"It's okay," Lucki comforted, "you're not going to-"

"It doesn't matter!" he wailed suddenly, a mournful howl distinct under the translator's words. "I-I- I can't ever-"

"Couldn't you?" said the absol.

"Couldn't he what?"

"It's nothing," Raiden responded after a delay, dropping his head. He slunk off, moving slowly. "Sorry."

Lucki wasn't sure what to make of this. She started eating her soup.

_ Day Two _

The path was easier, and she made good time walking the next day. She reached the Safari Zone by about four in the afternoon. She headed into the Zone immediately, looking for a girafarig. She managed to see a few, but none let her close enough to have a chance at catching. Before she knew it, the park was closing. Afterward, she hung out at the trainers' rest station, listening to people's advice on catching pokemon and snacking on the sandwiches they sold.

At seven, one of the other trainers promptly changed the television station to the news. Lucki, like the others, clustered around.  _ I wonder if Fallarbor or Lavaridge were attacked? _

"In tonight's top story," announced the anchorman, "a Team Magma agent infiltrated the Mt. Pyre shrine, stealing the sacred Blue Orb that resides there."


	12. whole

_ The thief can't be far. Team Aqua's over around Mt. Chimney, but they'll be heading this way, and after the attack on Route 119, the police are probably patrolling the area and trainers will be on the lookout. So the thief will probably be heading to Lilycove. _

It was too late to rush out and try to find the thief, but she was closer to Lilycove than Mt. Pyre was. There was a good chance the Team Magma jerk would have to pass her, or at worst, was only a bit ahead.

She could do this.

_ Day One _

Lucki woke early the next morning. She threw on clothing, gulped down breakfast, and rushed out.

She alternated between a brisk walk and a jog. It was too early for many people to be out traveling. A far off mist lay in the low points of the path, weaving through the green plants of the forest. There as a faint coolness in the air, not quite a dampness or chill.

By the time Lucki came upon any other trainers, the mist had been burned off by the rising sun.

"Have you seen anyone from Team Magma going this way?" Lucki demanded. The boy shook his head, but then told her, "I did see someone in a rush further on than me. I didn't get a close look, but they were dressed in red."

She thanked him and took off again. Other trainers said similar things, most saying they weren't completely sure because whoever-it-was tended to use sidepaths and shortcuts through the brush, so that they saw them but didn't actually pass them close up. By this point the area was starting to get rougher. At some points, the main path wove in and around crags and sudden drops, and the plants were shrubby but stiff and hard to push through. In places ledges were short enough that a foolhardy trainer might risk a jump. Other times the path split between a main path and a narrower side path that took a steep shortcut on unstable, crumbling ground. Before long, Lucki was taking those shortcuts, hoping it'd be enough to let her catch up. After a while she was through the worst of it, on a mostly straight path between forest and field.

Finally, Lucki caught a flash of red moving through the trees off the path. Quickly she hopped off the path as well, and following her quarry. After she caught up to the point she could see clearly he was wearing a Team Magma uniform, she started to slow, trying to move more quietly and stay behind bushes and rocks, out of sight. After all, losing track of the red thug wouldn't be much different than alerting him she was tailing him and prompting him to flee.

He stepped into a small clearing and Lucki halted, hiding behind a bush. It must have been an agreed-upon meeting place, because there were two other people there dressed in the same uniform. One was taller than the others, probably an adult.

And the other reached into his pocket and pulled out a shining blue orb.

"You got it," said the tallest one. He sounded like an adult, too. "But Aqua will be moving this way. I don't know if there's any route we could make it out on. Which way will you head?"

And the one holding the Blue Orb nodded. "Lilycove," he said, voice familiar.

"Lilycove."

"It's the one place they won't look. They'll waste their time trying to figure out where I am and covering the north, south and west. When they can't find it, they'll think I got through and move their attentions further away."

Lucki recognized his voice.

"Are you sure?" the adult asked.

She recognized it. He didn't have to keep talking.

"I know it's risky to hide in their stronghold, but it's the only chance. Brenton, you'll have to head north and get caught. Tell them you were a distraction and I really headed south. Once the submarine gets hit right after Flannery's attack, they'll be spread too far to pay any attention to a regular trainer."

He didn't have to keep talking. He didn't have to turn to the other boy so that his face was turned up and caught the light.

He didn't have to. She already knew it was Keegan.

She took a step backwards, then spun around and ran, her eyes stinging.

-

What was she going to do?

She finally came to a halt, legs trembling from exhaustion and lungs aching as she gasped for air.

There was no question of what she was going to do. She was going to stop them. Because they were criminals (deceivers) and she would stop them. Get them back for what he did.

She'd stop them all, reclaim the Orb, smash the whole cursed organization.

When she was ready, she started moving again, at a careful, recovering jog. She could do this.

She would do this.

Lucki kept going east.

And when she saw a pair of teens in black and white shirts and long blue pants, she threw herself toward them with a sense of incredible relief. "Hey!"

The pair hesitated, looking confused, and she ran up to them. "You're looking for the guy who stole the Orb, right?"

Both pairs of eyes focused on her with laser intensity. She had their attention. "Yeah," said the boy on the right.

"He's going to Lilycove. I know who he is."

"You-you're sure?" asked the girl on the left. "Can you find him?"

Lucki nodded, a cold fury churning inside her chest.

The pair exchanged a look. "We'll tell the admins. When you get to the next town, they should have someone waiting there to help you. With any luck, we can catch him there."

"Thank you," said the girl. "You have no idea how important to all of us this is."

Lucki nodded. They split up, and Lucki continued east.

The path started to get worse, returning to the mix of crags and plummets she'd traveled earlier. For a while it led through a low valley, the sides sloping upward and dotted with trees and small shrubs.

Lucki heard a rustling above her. She glanced toward it, then jumped back, narrowly avoiding the duskull's nightshade, which struck the path before her. She yelled, startled. The brown-grey, skull-faced round pokemon started to float closer, beginning another nightshade attack. "Go, Silver!"

The petite squirtle sparkled into being, just in time to be hit by the wave of dark energy.

"Hit back with water gun!" Lucki ordered.

Silver climbed to her feet, inhaled and shot a bullet of water into the requiem pokemon, sending the floating pokemon tumbling through the air. It stabilized, righted itself and began to float back. A second water gun passed through it without effect.

"What is this?" Silver asked, sounding slightly nervous.

"It's just a ghost type," Lucki replied distractedly, thinking. "They can turn intangible."

The duskull floated closer, and Silver backed up a pace. "What should I do?"

"Let me think. Uh, try an ice beam," Lucki said, trying to remember squirtles' full moveset.

Silver focused, gathering the energy and then sending a shimmering ice beam at the ghost type. The attack passed through, freezing the side of the crevice. The duskull shivered.

"It didn't work!"

"You need a dark type move to hit an intangible ghost. You should be able to...Try using bite."

Silver looked from side to side across the path, as if she was hoping some alternative would present itself, or at least a way out. "But I don't know how!"

"Don't be like that, it's not hard," Lucki said.  _ She should be experienced enough to know bite by this point. _ "You saw the wartortle use it. Just open your mouth and bite it."

Silver stood still.

"Come on, Silver!" Lucki yelled, frustrated.

She didn't react. The duskull approached closer. The tiny turtle shifted nervously on her feet, then launched herself at the ghost type, snapping her jaws shut on one edge. The duskull shuddered, pulling itself loose and leaving a chunk of its body in Silver's mouth, which quickly dissipated into the air.

The duskull seemed to frown. It shuddered and let out an eerie groan as it sank into the ground. Lucki waited several seconds to see if it would reappear. When did didn't, she figured it must have decided to flee the battle.  _ Still, I should probably leave Silver out for a bit, in case it's just waiting for me to recall her. _ She started walking again.

Silver took a few steps, then stopped dead. She stood perfectly still, staring upward without a sound. Lucki followed the squirtle's gaze, and saw the broad nest of a swellow in a cleft half-supported by a broad tree and half the cliff wall. A mother, because from under her breast poked the small, curious navy heads of several taillow. The swellow was watching them alertly, ready to fight if they attacked. She shifted to shelter her young under her wings, hiding them from view.

"A swellow mom," Lucki said. "Cute, huh?"

Silver began to cry.

Lucki didn't know what to do. She stared dumbly for a moment. "What's wrong?"

"I never even," Silver said, her voice sad. Under the translator, it was a miserable sob. "She laid an egg and they t-t-took I they." Her voice hiccuped. "I have brothers and sisters I'll never who. Who don't know I exist. I never even saw -" Silver sobbed louder. "That wartortle was the first one I ever saw. She doesn't even know I exist. Did she - did she – care?"

"It's okay Silver," Lucki tried. "I-"

"Why did you pick me!" Silver screamed, the calm sad voice of the translator contrasting horribly with the desolate wail underneath. "You saw I was small and weak and scared. You saw I wasn't a fighter. Why did you pick me?"

-

Lucki finally managed to calm Silver down to a miserable silence. Unsettled, she recalled the petite turtle and headed on, hoping the next town's Nurse Joy might be able to explain what had happened.

The path continued to get worse. Now it was virtually a three-dimensional maze, with the main path weaving up and down as well as back and forth as it navigated the complicated rocky landscape. At many points there were splits forming alternative paths, some of which served as efficient shortcuts and others that turned out to dead-end, forcing her to backtrack and try again.

She ruminated on the path's problems until she saw one of the red-hooded thugs below her, driving all other thoughts from her mind.

He was on a lower plateau, connected to Lucki's position by a steep but doable gradient. He was smaller than the ones she'd seen earlier, somebody else, and he had a map open. She started to slide down.

"Dammit," he muttered.

"Hey!" Lucki burst out furiously, recognizing the voice under the hood of the Team Magma uniform. "You're the pokemon thief!" He'd spilled the pokeballs on the ground. He'd been the one with Keegan.

He took off at her voice in a sprint, not even throwing a glance over his shoulder to see who'd yelled.

"Get back here!" Lucki shouted, jumping the last few feet and chasing after him.

He was a lot faster than she was. He ran to the edge of the current flat area and jumped off the edge, running around a corner into a dead end. He skidded to a near halt and twisted, starting to double back, but Lucki got there at the last second to block him. He tried to stop before he ran into her, overbalanced and tripped, falling backward.

"Go!" she shouted, tossing her pokeball. "Get him, Flare!"

The Team Magma thug was cornered. She had him!

"Good boy, easy," he said nervously to Flare, who had barred his teeth in a snarl and prepared to attack.

Flare's ears pricked and the whole of his posture changed. His shoulders dipped and his tail dropped down to the ground. He let out a low whine, perhaps of shock, a wordless sound untouched by the translator around his neck. He looked over his shoulder at Lucki after a moment, back to the boy, back to Lucki, and shifted backwards slightly.

"Flare!" Lucki shouted. "What's wrong with you? He's a thief and he's part of Team Magma!"

Flare didn't seem to hear her. He had dropped his head and was staring at the boy with almost imploring eyes. His tail moved feebly.

The boy must have seen something in it Lucki couldn't, because he vaulted up and then rammed Lucki with one arm, the other swinging to knock the pokeball out of her hands. He caught it as he ran past, turning a moment at the other end of the crevice.

"Come on!" he called. "Follow me!"

And before Lucki could understand what he meant, Flare had jumped past her and bounded after him.

-

Team Aqua had kept their word, because when she approached the small town between the Safari Zone and Lilycove, there were several people standing just outside, wearing matching outfits, black and white shirts above blue pants. It was late afternoon, nearing but not quite dusk, and the sky was clear.

"You're the one?" asked the adult.

She nodded. Names weren't exchanged; it didn't matter if they knew one another. "But he'll see you coming if you just follow me."

"Our base of operations is in Lilycove," he said. "We moved most of our people to Mt. Chimney but we still have some here. They're spread out through the town, enough that a few around you won't be noticeable. They'll keep their distance until you identify him."

"You're sure he's here?" Lucki asked.

"Relatively," the adult said. "If he's trying to blend in, he has to move with the rest of the trainers. Lilycove is half a day's journey away. No real trainer would turn up a room in the Pokecenter to camp, especially not with a torrential thunderstorm reported for tonight."

Lucki's eyes looked upward a second at the cloudless sky. "There's a storm?"

The admin winked. "As far as they know."

She grinned back, expression sharp and a trifle malicious.  _ It's over now, Keegan. _

Lucki headed into the city. The other Team Aqua members with them promptly spread out, and she could see a few others mingling among the people as she entered. The admin was trailing her at a distance. She started walking through the streets, looking through the crowds until her eyes finally caught on a familiar figure.

"Keegan!"

He started to turn. "Hey Luck-"

She barreled into him, knocking him to the ground hard. "Liar!" Her fingers hooked into his pocket and tore, exposing the Orb. She grabbed for it.

He lunged for it too. "No! Stop!"

She wrenched free as two Team Aqua members grabbed him, holding him down.

"Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Keegan screamed.

She stared back at him silently, a cold rage swirling inside her like icewater, then turned sharply and walked away.

She rounded a corner of the street and walked to the admin. "Here," she said, holding out the Blue Orb.

And then she turned her back on all of them and walked away.

-

Before going to sleep that night she watched the real weather report. They'd tricked Keegan (like he'd tricked her). The report said there was no chance of rain for the rest of the week.


	13. world

_ Day Zero _

On the morning of the thirteenth day she continued east.

It was the direction she had to go anyway, for her next badge, and the pokemon thief had been heading east. The Team Magma members, Keegan, had said something about a submarine attack soon. So, she thought: the pokemon thief was probably going all the way to Lilycove, which was the only major thing to the east and where Team Aqua's base was, probably as part of a plan to steal a submarine there or something like that.

If not, she didn't have any other leads to go on. If she heard something about Team Magma clustering somewhere else, she'd turn around. Until then, east it was.

She met a trainer along the way who mentioned he'd seen some red-shirted guys hurrying in the opposite direction. She smiled and thanked him.  _ I made the right decision, then. _ She sped up.

The path was smooth and straight, with none of yesterday's confusion. The sky was perfectly clear. Only by late morning, nearly noon, were there even three or four small puffy white clouds. The ground was dry and even radiating a pleasant amount of heat from the sunlight.

She reached Lilycove by noon, hearing the fight before she was even clear of the trees.

_ "Once the submarine gets hit..." _ Lucki remembered.  _ Then they weren't even intending to steal it. Just to destroy it. _ The cold fury rose in her again.  _ They were just going to destroy everything if they couldn't have it. _

Here and there, rain poured out of a clear sky, and thunder crackled in response. Rushing in, Lucki suddenly realized why Keegan had chosen those new pokemon as a solarbeam blasted a hole through a building. She hadn't thought anything of it at the time. She hadn't been suspicious at all. It had been right in front of her, and she hadn't realized.

Vileplume could go against the water types of Team Aqua and would have an advantage in the same Sunny Day area as Magma's fire types. Voltorb would be for the opposite weather, its electric attacks devastating if Team Aqua tried rain dance. Mawile for resistance in case they ran into something else. From the looks of it, all the Team Magma members had gone a similar route.  _ That's what they were doing poaching in Route 119, _ Lucki realized.  _ Grass types...and the ones there are used to working in rain. _

For a moment she wondered if somehow, they might actually win. But they couldn't have had these pokemon long – they'd only been poaching recently – and the main pokemon they'd raised would still be fire and ground types, the idiots. Any trainer knew better than that. If they thought they'd win just because they'd thrown in a few untrained grass types in-!

They were only managing this much because they'd tricked most of Team Aqua into leaving. They could cause damage for the moment, but even if they managed to hold off the members here, it was only until the full force of the Team arrived. Idiots. This was reckless, a bunch of brainless thugs rushing in without any idea how impossible it was they'd win. Probably even acting under the delusion they were actually right.

_ As if. _

And Lucki would help speed up their inevitable loss.

The battle was going to be hard, though. Lucki paused, thinking, and pulled a pokeball from her belt.

When the absol formed, Lucki said, "Irin, listen, I really need your help. They've taken Flare and-"

The absol stared at her with inscrutable black eyes. "I warned you," she said in her mellifluous voice.

"What?" Lucki said after a second's pause, then, "No, you don't understand. I'm not blaming you. I need you to work together, as a team. We're going to be fighting Team Magma, and I need everyone's help to win."

"I understand entirely."

"So you'll help, then?"

As if Lucki hadn't spoken, the absol continued evenly, "This was the only outcome. You had your chance to turn things aside and you chose otherwise."

"They – they did something to him! They probably did something to all of them!"

The absol stared at her with inscrutable black eyes. They were alien and remote.

"That's why I need you to help me!"

"You have made your choice," the absol said, exactly as before. "You have no need of convincing me; I shall remain until the end."

"So you'll help?"

"I shall remain," the absol said, her voice beautiful and emotionless. "I will neither help nor hinder."

"Why?" Lucki demanded in frustration.

Calmly, the absol said, "I told you to release me."

"Don't you understand yet? I'm not a bad person!"

But the absol only stared at her with inscrutable black eyes. "You have made your choice."

Over to her right Lucki saw motion and spun to see another Team Magma thug, a girl, around the corner of the building.

"Go!" she screamed, releasing Raiden. "Attack!"

The girl spun at her voice, hand reflexively grabbing for a pokeball and throwing it. "Sadiki! Crunch!" The mightyena appeared, snarling and lunging for Raiden, who yelped and tried to reverse his attack, skidding to a halt as the dark type reached him and managing to jump back as its teeth snapped shut on the empty air where he'd been a second ago. There were gashes in its fur and it had obviously been battling before.

"Spark!"

Raiden was shuddering. Electricity gathered around him, glowing so brightly it hurt to look at. He released it barely a second later, the mightyena letting out a strangled howl and collapsing.

"Sadiki!" yelled the girl.

"Just give up," Lucki told her.

"We can't lose. Sadiki, I'm sorry, please!"

The dark type lurched to its feet and jumped him. Raiden and the mightyena tumbled in a snarling ball, the translator producing short, nonsense syllables in a furious voice. The mightyena sank its teeth into his shoulder by his neck. Raiden let out a sound like a scream and released a sudden burst of electricity. The mightyena's whole body convulsed and then it dropped, twitching a moment.

Raiden was shaking himself, cowering against the ground and when she started toward him he yelped and ran back, leaving a splattering of blood drops on the ground. The thug took advantage of the distraction to recall her pokemon and escape.

He screamed at her. "It hurts!"

"Raiden, it's okay I can -"

"It's scary and it hurts and it's hard!" he screamed. "He was going to kill me! I don't want to!" Blood was dripping down his leg and chest onto the rough cement of the ground. "I don't care if it's fixed it still hurts!" His body was shaking as if he was sobbing.

"Raiden-"

"You fight!" he yelled. "You fight! You do it!"

"Raiden, come on, we don't have time for this, we have to get Flare."

"Flare hates me! He hates me because you liked me better!"

"That's not true," Lucki said.

"I want Mom and Dad and I don't want to fight and I don't want him to hate me and I don't want to be hurt or any of it!" His voice was jumping, loud to soft to loud. The translator might have sparked or maybe he was sparking, and the absol said,

"She does not hold you."

The manectric looked from the absol to Lucki to the absol to Lucki to the absol and then he spun and ran.

Lucki shouted after him, but he was gone.

-

Lucki threw out Saurius' pokeball. "Razor leaf!" she shouted.

"No," said the tropius calmly. The Team Magma trainer before them hesitated, then recalled his poochyena and ran.

"Saurius, what's wrong with you? I need your help!"

The tropius looked at her a long moment, as if from a great distance. "Why did I go with you?" he asked slowly. "There must have been some reason, but I no longer remember what it could possibly be."

"Saurius-"

"That isn't even my name," he said, his voice still slow and somewhat confused, still distant. "So why...?"

"Listen, Saurius, we're fighting Team Magma here, they took Flare. We can get your friends back too!"

But he just kept looking at her from that distance. "Why? It wasn't as if you'd done it for their sake, I knew that. You helped me because they had taken something of yours and you disliked them. You could easily have stood on the other side. What does it matter to me which kind of trainer they were? Yet still I went. Gratitude? Strength? With all of them gone, it doesn't matter even still." He went silent. He turned his long neck around, taking in his surroundings. Finally he looked back to her. His expression showed no recognition, as if he had forgotten who she was.

"They're not gone! If you help me we can save them!"

And slowly, gravely, he said, "Whatever bond you had to me, it's gone now." He breathed in calmly. "And there is something brewing in the air. Something building." His wings began to beat. He lifted into the air and began to fly off.

Lucki reached blindly for his pokeball.

"You told them they could leave if they chose," said the golden voice of the absol. Startled, Lucki looked to her, and before she could look back to Saurius, he was gone.

-

And Silver said only, "You picked me," in a voice harsh with betrayal and accusation.

"Are you going to run away too?" Lucki said.

Silver stood there, tears trickling down her face. "I don't have anywhere I can run."

Mutely, Lucki pulled the white school pokeball from her belt and recalled the squirtle.

And the absol said, "I warned you," her voice drifting ethereally in the air, clear and distinct among the violence and shouts.

"I told you, it's not your fault," Lucki said again. "Those stories aren't true.

"It's Team Magma," Lucki said. "It's Team Magma, they're the ones who did this. They did something to my pokemon."

And the absol did not respond.

"It's not your fault!" Lucki screamed. "None of it was true!"

"No," agreed the absol in her beautiful, inhuman voice. "It was your fault from the beginning."

For the space of a breath it was silent, the chaos around them paused.

Pokeballs popped open behind her. A boy's voice yelled, "Attack!"

Lucki threw out the pokeball in her hand. Silver screamed as the absol flipped gracefully out of the way of a camerupt's flamethrower, then twisted to avoid the lunging mightyena. Keegan tackled her to the ground, sending her skidding across the pavement to the broken edge. She thrashed, kicking him in the side hard enough to make him loosen his grasp, and scrambled away, her arm and leg burning where they were scraped and her back and shoulders throbbing from the impact.

Lucki turned to see Silver blasting the approaching mightyena with water, the absol landing deftly but making no move to take out either pokemon. Keegan was between her and the battle, and he got to his feet in the moment she took watching it. She turned again and ran. She could pounding footsteps on cement that were indistinguishable from her own.

She took a wrong turn and wound up headed down a street where a building has collapsed across it. She didn't, like the Team Magma boy, like the pokemon thief, try to turn back. That would be a mistake. She sped up, throwing herself toward the rubble. If she could get up it before he reached her, had enough time and distance to climb it, it'd slow him down too.

Unfortunately she had no such lead or time. She made it perhaps three feet off the ground by climbing like running, grabbing at the broken brick and stone without consideration for comfort, banging her knees on the raw edges as she shoved her shoes into footholds by touch rather than sight. The distance she climbed meant only she fell that much farther when Keegan caught up seconds later, grabbed her by one leg and pulled her roughly down, the skin on her hands ripping as she tried to hold on. She hit the ground hard, landing on hip and elbow with a long bloody gash along her bare leg where it caught on a bit of broken steel.

"Give -" Keegan started to shout, but she lashed out again, kicking his legs under him almost enough that he fell and enough that he was off balance long enough to scramble to her feet again and take off in the opposite direction.

She couldn't feel any pain from the injuries, but she could feel blood trickling down her ankle, a stiffness in her knee, a raw heat on her palms and elbows. She could hear shouts and explosions and screams, and the building behind her shattered.

The boy behind her shouted. His voice wasn't pained, so she thought he was clear. She wouldn't have looked back either way. Lucki kept running.

She realized she should try to retrace her steps, get back to her pokemon, but only too late, when she'd already gone well past the original turns she'd taken and she had no idea where they were. She passed battling Team Aqua and Magma pairs, and might have gone to them but the Aqua members she saw were losing and she had no pokemon of her own. And soon there were footsteps behind her.

Keegan pinned her finally against a wall, his arm pressing against her throat. "Give up the Orb."

She grinned defiantly. "I already gave it to Team Aqua."

Keegan released her. He stumbled backward, looking stunned, his eyes wide and uncomprehending. "Oh god. Oh god. It's over."

"You're right," Lucki snapped, "it is over-"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he screamed. "Do you have any idea?"

Above them the white clouds began to darken.

"You destroyed the world! You let them raise Kyogre!" he screamed as the first light raindrops began to fall. "You've drowned the whole world!"

Thunder rumbled above.

-

She'd collapsed soon after, giving in to exhaustion.

She lay there, in the rain and the mud and the devastation. Her eyes were still open and she could see the thundering sky, the ruined buildings. The rain that fell in sheets from a black sky.

An absol appeared out of the gloom and padded toward her with unhurried pawsteps, like a quiet demon or an incarnate god. It bent its head and touched its mudsplattered nose delicately to her forehead like a priest's benediction. "I told you," it said simply, its breath soft and insubstantial against her face.

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome comments and I really do mean that. Are you confused about something? Tell me! Are you confused about something and think it's because I'm a bad writer? Tell me! Do you disagree about something? Tell me! Do you have any other sort of opinion on any of my writing choices? Tell me! Do you think you need to be better before you're allowed to tell a writer your opinion? You don't, tell me! Do you think this fic would be better if it was another, completely different kind of fic? I cannot promise I will rewrite it for you, but I am very interested in hearing about why you think that! Do you want to say something you are absolutely, one-hundred-percent sure I don't want to hear? Tell me! Do you doubt that and nothing I can say will convince you I won't get mad and hold a grudge against you forever more? Anon commenting is on, give it a consequence-free try! (You can put your actual email in there, I can't see any of that information.)


End file.
